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ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 



BEST AMERICAN 
ORATIONS 



SELECTED AND ARRANGED 
BY 

JOHN R. HOWARD 

editor, " best american poems," " best american 

essays"; managing editor, "library of the 

world's best poetry," etc. 



NEW YORK 

THOMAS Y. CROWELL & COMPANY 

PUBLISHERS 



EVr5 



Copyright, igio, 
By THOMAS Y. CROWELL & CO. 



€^CI.A268475 



I 



PREFACE 



"There were giants in the earth in those days." 
What days ? Whenever giants were needed. In the 
time of personal physical force, as in the ancient 
Hebrew tradition quoted, "the mighty men of old" 
were heroes of battle. In succeeding ages, every 
great national crisis seems to have developed the 
strong men for its needs. So has it been in Amer- 
ica. The Colonial, Revolutionary, and Constructive 
periods had their giants; the day of expanding terri- 
tory, commerce, and manufactures, with conflicting 
sectional interests and discussion of the mutual 
relations of the States and the Union, had its cham- 
pions; and the culminating struggle over slavery, 
involving the very existence of the Union and the 
Constitution, bred its men of might, both civil and 
military, on both sides of the vast conflict. 

America has always been prolific of orators, as is- 
natural in a land of popular government, where 
frequent appeal to the people is requisite. Aside 
from the pulpit invocations to higher personal Kfe, 
nothing is so important or so universally interesting 
as the public discussion of public poUcies. Thus it 
is that politics, in the larger sense — the ethical 



iv PREFACE 

regulation of government in the interest of the people, 
evokes the clearest logic, the most fervid passion, 
and the most effective rhetoric of oratory. Its range 
is general, but its appeal is personal; and the finest 
examples of public speech in any nation will therefore 
be found in its poUtical records. 

It is inevitable, then, that a collection of American 
orations must be chiefly from the utterances of its 
statesmen upon the great issues of their times; 
so that this little gathering of themes and thinkers 
presents almost an outUne sketch of the history of 
our country, as is shown by the chronological table 
of Contents. In any largely representative compila- 
tion of such addresses there are many — very many 
— that might be advantageously included; but in 
so compact a selection as the present, only the most 
notable and influential may be taken. Even of 
these, some treat of so numerous a range of sub- 
ordinate matters or are so variously illustrated that 
our Umits have compelled abridgment of portions — 
which, however, are always indicated in the text. 



CONTENTS 



James Otis 

The Writs of Assistance (1761) 

Patrick JiENRY 

On Military Defence of the Colony (1775) 

Samuel Adams . 

The Independence of America (1776) 

Alexander Hamilton 

The Federal Senate (1788) 

George Washington 

Farewell Address (1796) . 

John Adams 

Inaugural Address (1797) . 

Thomas Jefferson 

First Inaugural Address (1801) 

John Randolph 

On Rupture with England (1806) 

Edward Everett 

The History of Liberty (1828) . 

Robert Young Hayne 

The South and the Constitution (1830) 

Daniel Webster 

The States and the Constitution (1830) 

Thomas Hart Benton 

On Expunging the Jackson Censure (1837) 
V 



VI 



CONTENTS 



Charles Sumner 

The True Grandeur of Nations (1845) 

Henry Clay 

The Compromise Measures (1850) 

John Caldwell Calhoun 

Slavery and the Union (1850) . 

Abraham Lincoln 

The Divided House (1858) 
Gettysburg Address (1863) 

William Henry Seward 

The Irrepressible Conflict (1858) 

Wendell Phillips 

Toussaint L'Ouverture (1861) . 

Henry Ward Beecher 

Abraham Lincoln (1865) . 

Henry Woodfin Grady 

The New South (1886) . 

William McKinley 

World-relations of America (1901) 



193 
217 

233 

251 

265 

267 
279 

305 
321 

335 



JAMES OTIS 



Of a wealthy and aristocratic colonial family in Massachu- 
setts, a graduate of Harvard, with fine classical training and a 
wide taste in literature, a brilliantly successful lawyer, James 
Otis was not a Tory, like many of his social grade, but an ardent 
defender of the rights of the colonies. 

In 1760 the royal governors had arranged a new device 
called Writs of Assistance, or search-warrants, to enable them 
to seek out goods suspected of not having paid taxes due, 
which greatly troubled the merchants of Boston and Salem. 
The application of the Crown to the court to issue such writs 
was argued in February, 1761. Otis, who had been Crown 
Advocate-General, resigned that position, to appear for the 
merchants in opposition. He was, wrote John Adams, " a 
flame of fire; with a promptitude of classical allusions, a depth 
of research, a rapid summary of historical events and dates, a 
profusion of legal authorities, a prophetic glance of his eyes into 
futurity, and a rapid torrent of impetuous eloquence, he hurried 
away all before him. American independence was then and 
there born." As to the writs, the court withheld its decision, 
and at the next term no more was heard of them. 

This speech, of which but a portion remains, placed Otis 
among the friends of colonial freedom and the enemies of 
royalty, and he was so received by both parties. He was a 
member of the Massachusetts legislature in 1761, of the Con- 
gress at New York in 1765, and again legislator in Massachu- 
setts in 1766. Everywhere Otis took high rank as lawmaker, 
lawyer, and orator. He was also one of the most convincing 
writers on the hotly contested political topics of the time, and 
throughout the Revolution was a prime factor in sustaining 
the cause of independence. 



THE WRITS OF ASSISTANCE 

May it Please Your Honors : I was desired by 
one of the court to look into the books, and consider 
the question now before them concerning writs of 
assistance. I have accordingly considered it, and 
now appear not only in obedience to your order, but 
likewise in behalf of the inhabitants of this town, 
who have presented another petition, and out of 
regard to the liberties of the subject. And I take 
this opportunity to declare, that whether under a fee 
or not (for in such a cause as this I despise a fee), 
I will to my dying day oppose with all the powers and 
faculties God has given me, all such instruments of 
slavery on the one hand, and villany on the other, as 
this writ of assistance is. 

It appears to me the worst instrument of arbi- 
trary power, the most destructive of English liberty 
and the fundamental principles of law, that ever was 
found in an English law-book. I must therefore 
beg your honors' patience and attention to the whole 
range of an argument, that may perhaps appear 
uncommon in many things, as well as to points of 
learning that are more remote and unusual ; that the 
whole tendency of my design may the more easily be 
perceived, the conclusions better descend, and the 
3 



4 BEST AMERICAN ORATIONS 

force of them be better felt. I shall not think much 
of my pains in this cause, as I engaged in it from 
principle. I was solicited to argue this cause as 
Advocate-General ; and because I would not, I have 
been charged with desertion from my office. To this 
charge I can give a very sufficient answer. I re- 
nounced that office, and I argue this cause from the 
same principle; and I argue it with the greater 
pleasure, as it is in favor of British liberty, at a time 
when we hear the greatest monarch upon earth 
declaring from his throne that he glories in the name 
of Briton, and that the privileges of his people are 
dearer to him than the most valuable prerogatives of 
his crown; and as it is in opposition to a kind of 
power, the exercise of which in former periods of 
history cost one king of England his head, and 
another his throne. I have taken more pains in this 
cause than I ever will take again, although my en- 
gaging in this and another popular cause has raised 
much resentment. But I think I can sincerely de- 
clare, that I cheerfully submit myself to every odious 
name for conscience' sake; and from my soul I 
despise all those whose guilt, maUce, or folly has 
made them my foes. Let the consequences be what 
they will, I am determined to proceed. The only 
principles of pubHc conduct, that are worthy of a 
gentleman or a man, are to sacrifice estate, ease, 
health, and applause, and even life, to the sacred 
calls of his country. 



JAMES OTIS 5 

These manly sentiments, in private life, make the 
good citizens ; in public life, the patriot and the hero. 
I do not say that, when brought to the test, I shall 
be invincible. I pray God I may never be brought 
to the melancholy trial, but if ever I should, it will 
be then known how far I can reduce to practice 
principles which I know to be founded in truth. In 
the meantime I will proceed to the subject of this 
writ. 

Your honors will find in the old books concerning 
the office of a justice of the peace, precedents of 
general warrants to search suspected houses. But in 
more modern books, you v/ill find only special war- 
rants to search such and such houses, specially named, 
in which the complainant has before sworn that he 
suspects his goods are concealed; and will find it 
adjudged, that special warrants only are legal. In 
the same manner I rely on it, that the wTit prayed 
for in this petition, being general, is illegal. It is a 
power that places the liberty of every man in the 
hands of every petty officer. I say I admit that 
special writs of assistance, to search special places, 
may be granted to certain persons on oath; but I 
deny that the writ now prayed for can be granted, 
for I beg leave to make some observations on the 
writ itself, before I proceed to other Acts of Parlia- 
ment. 

In the first place, the writ is universal, being 
directed "to all and singular justices, sheriffs, con- 



6 BEST AMERICAN ORATIONS 

stables, and all other officers and subjects"; so that, 
in short, it is directed to every subject in the King's 
dominions. Every one with this writ may be a 
tyrant; if this commission be legal, a tyrant in a 
legal manner, also, may control, imprison, or murder 
any one within the realm. In the next place, it is 
perpetual, there is no return. A man is accountable 
to no person for his doings. Every man may reign 
secure in his petty tyranny, and spread terror and 
desolation around him, until the trump of the arch- 
angel shall excite different emotions in his soul. In 
the third place, a person with this writ, in the day- 
time, may enter all houses, shops, etc., at will, and 
command all to assist him. Fourthly, by this writ, 
not only deputies, etc., but even their menial ser- 
vants, are allowed to lord it over us. What is this 
but to have the curse of Canaan with a witness on 
us; to be the servant of servants, the most despicable 
of God's creation ? 

Now one of the most essential branches of English 
liberty is the freedom of one's house. A man's 
house is his castle; and whilst he is quiet, he is as 
well guarded as a prince in his castle. This writ, 
if it should be declared legal, would totally annihilate 
this privilege. Custom-house officers may enter 
our houses when they please; we are commanded 
to permit their entry. Their menial servants may 
enter, may break locks, bars, and everything in their 
way; and whether they break through maUce or 



JAMES OTIS 7 

revenge, no man, no court can inquire. Bare sus- 
picion without oath is sufi&cient. This wanton 
exercise of this power is not a chimerical suggestion 
of a heated brain. I will mention some facts. Mr. 
Pew had one of these writs, and when Mr. Ware suc- 
ceeded him, he indorsed this writ over to Mr. Ware; 
so that these writs are negotiable from one ofl&cer 
to another; and so your honors have no opportunity 
of judging the persons to whom this vast power is 
delegated. Another instance is this: Mr. Justice 
Walley had called this same Mr. Ware before him, by 
a constable, to answer for a breach of the Sabbath- 
day acts, or that of profane swearing. As soon as 
he had finished, Mr. Ware asked him if he had done. 
He replied, ''Yes." "Well then," said Mr. Ware, " I 
will show you a Httle of my power. I command you 
to permit me to search your house for uncustomed 
goods;" and went on to search the house from the 
garret to the cellar; and then served the constable 
in the same manner! 

But to show another absurdity in this writ: if 
it should be estabUshed, I insist upon it every person, 
by the 14th of Charles II, has this power as well as 
the custom-house officers. The words are: "It shall 
be lawful for any person or persons authorized," etc. 
What a scene does this open ! Every man prompted 
by revenge, ill-humor, or wantonness to inspect the 
inside of his neighbor's house, may get a writ of as- 
sistance. Others will ask it from self-defence; one 



8 BEST AMERICAN ORATIONS 

arbitrary exertion will provoke another, until society- 
be involved in tumult and in blood. 

[Here ends the only direct report of the speech that 
remains; but John Adams, who heard the oration, 
and who said that in it American independence was 
born, wrote out an abstract of it, which here fol- 
lows: — ] 

1. He began with an exordium, containing an 
apology for his resignation of the position of Advo- 
cate-General in the Court of Admiralty: and for his 
appearance in that cause in opposition to the Crown 
and in favor of the town of Boston and the merchants 
of Boston and Salem. 

2. A dissertation on the rights of man in a state of 
nature. He asserted that every man, merely natural, 
was an independent sovereign, subject to no law 
but the law written on his heart and revealed to him 
by his Maker, in the constitution of his nature, 
and the inspiration of his understanding and his 
conscience. His right to his hfe, his liberty, no 
created being could rightfully contest. Nor was his 
right to his property less incontestable. The club 
that he had snapped from a tree, for a staff or for 
defence, was his own. His bow and arrow were his 
own; if by a pebble he had killed a partridge or a 
squirrel, it was his own. No creature, man or beast, 
had a right to take it from him. If he had taken an 
eel, or a smelt, or a sculpin, it was his property. In 
short, he sported^upon this topic with so much wit 



JAMES OTIS 9 

and humor, and at the same time with so much indis- 
putable truth and reason, that he was not less enter- 
taining than instructive. He asserted that these 
rights were inherent and inaUenable ; that they never 
could be surrendered or alienated, but by idiots or 
madmen, and all the acts of idiots and lunatics were 
void, and not obligatory, by all the laws of God and 
man. Nor were the poor negroes forgotten. Not a 
Quaker in Philadelphia, or Mr. Jefferson in Virginia, 
ever asserted the rights of negroes in stronger terms. 
Young as I was, and ignorant as I was, I shuddered 
at the doctrine he taught; and I have all my Ufe 
shuddered, and still shudder, at the consequences 
that may be drawn from such premises. Shall we 
say that the rights of masters and servants clash, 
and can be decided only by force ? I adore the idea 
of gradual abolitions ! but who shall decide how 
fast or how slowly these aboHtions shall be made ? 

3. From individual independence he proceeded 
to association. If it was inconsistent with the dig- 
nity of human nature to say that men were grega- 
rious animals, like wild geese, it surely could offend 
no delicacy to say they were social animals by nature: 
that there were natural sympathies, and, above all, 
the sweet attraction of the sexes, which must soon 
draw them together in little groups, and by degrees 
in larger congregations, for mutual assistance and 
defence. And this must have happened before any 
formal covenant, by express words or signs, was 



10 BEST AMERICAN ORATIONS 

concluded. When general councils and deliberations 
commenced, the objects could be no other than the 
mutual defence and security of every individual for 
his life, his liberty, and his property. To suppose 
them to have surrendered these in any other way than 
by equal rules and general consent was to suppose 
them idiots or madmen, whose acts were never 
binding. To suppose them surprised by fraud, or 
compelled by force into any other compact, such fraud 
and such force could confer no obligation. Every 
man had a right to trample it under foot whenever 
he pleased. In short, he asserted these rights to be 
derived only from nature and the Author of nature: 
that they were inherent, inalienable, and indefeasible 
by any laws, pacts, contracts, covenants, or stipula- 
tions which man could devise. 

4. These principles and these rights were wrought 
into the English Constitution as fundamental laws. 
And under this head he went back to the old Saxon 
laws, and to Magna Charta, and the fifty confirma- 
tions of it in ParHament, and the executions ordained 
against the violators of it, and the national ven- 
geance which had been taken on them from time to 
time, down to the Jameses and Charleses, and to the 
Petition of Right and the Bill of Rights and the 
Revolution. He asserted that the security of these 
rights to life, Hberty, and property had been the 
object of all those struggles against arbitrary power, 
temporal and spiritual, civil and political, military 



} 



JAMES OTIS IT 

and ecclesiastical, in every age. He asserted that 
our ancestors, as British subjects, and we, their 
descendants, as British subjects, were entitled to 
all those rights, by the British Constitution, as 
well as by the law of nature and our provincial 
charter, as much as any inhabitant of London or 
Bristol, or any part of England; and were not to 
be cheated out of them by any phantom of " vir- 
tual representation," or any other fiction of law 
or politics, or any monkish trick of deceit and 
hypocrisy. 

5. He then examined the Acts of Trade, one by 
one, and demonstrated that if they were considered 
as revenue laws, they destroyed all our security of 
property, liberty, and life, every right of nature, 
and the English Constitution, and the charter of the 
province. Here he considered the distinction be- 
tween ''external and internal taxes," at that time 
a popular and commonplace distinction. But he 
asserted that there was no such distinction in theory, 
or upon any principle but "necessity." The neces- 
sity that the commerce of the empire should be under 
one direction was obvious. The Americans had been 
so sensible of this necessity that they had connived 
at the distinction between external and internal 
taxes, and had submitted to the Acts of Trade as 
regulations of commerce, but never as taxations or 
revenue laws. Nor had the British government till 
now ever dared to attempt to enforce them as taxa- 



12 BEST AMERICAN ORATIONS 

tions or revenue laws. They had lain dormant in 
that character for a century almost. The Naviga- 
tion Act he allowed to be binding upon us, because 
we had consented to it by our own legislature. Here 
he gave a history of the Navigation Act of the first 
of Charles II., a plagiarism from OUver Cromwell. 
This act had lain dormant for fifteen years. In 
1675, after repeated letters and orders from the king. 
Governor Leverett very candidly informs his Maj- 
esty that the law had not been executed, because it 
was thought unconstitutional, ParUament not having 
authority over us. 



PATRICK HENRY 

I 736-1 799 



A POOR boy in Virginia, with few early advantages and too 
little energy to improve those, Henry became a lawyer, and for 
some time an unsuccessful one. But finally, in a case that 
interested and roused him, — defence of the legislature against 
a salary suit by the clergy, — he dropped the stilted fashion of 
speech he had imitated from older men, and giving free rein to 
his native sense and emotional power, thrilled his hearers and 
surprised himself with a startling success. This changed the 
man; he had found himself, and others had found him, for 
thenceforward he was as brilliantly successful as before he had 
dismally failed. His eloquence — simple, direct, forcible, irre- 
sistible — gave him reputation, and in 1765, at the age of 
twenty-nine, he was elected to the Virginia House of Burgesses. 

This was in the heat of the discussion of the hated Stamp 
Act, when men hardly knew whether to submit or to resist; 
but Henry introduced resolutions declaring that Virginians 
were bound to pay no taxes not imposed by their own legisla- 
ture, and flung himself into the debate with that short and now 
familiar speech in which he cried, "Caesar had his Brutus, 
Charles the First his Cromwell, and George the Third" — 
"Treason!" cried the Speaker — "may profit by their exam- 
ple," concluded Henry; and his resolutions were passed. 

In 1775 he uttered before the Virginia Convention of Dele- 
gates the vehement address here following, arousing the Virgin- 
ians to arms ; and in all his legislative career, in the Continental 
Congress of 1774 and the Virginia Convention of 1775, he 
was foremost in repelling the idea of British aggression. He 
was made Governor of Virginia in 1 776-1 779 and in 1784- 
1786. In 1788, in the Virginia Ratification Convention, he 
opposed the new Constitution as giving too much power to the 
general government. From first to last Patrick Henry was 
a singularly eloquent Tribune of the People. 



14 



AMERICAN LIBERTY 

Mr. President: No man thinks more highly than 
I do of the patriotism, as well as abiUties, of the very 
worthy gentlemen who have just addressed the House. 
But different men often see the same subject in dif- 
ferent lights; and, therefore, I hope that it wdll not 
be thought disrespectful to those gentlemen, if, 
entertaining as I do, opinions of a character very 
opposite to theirs, I shall speak forth my sentiments 
freely and without reserve. This is no time for cere- 
mony. The question before the House is one of 
awful moment to this country. For my own part I 
consider it as nothing less than a question of freedom 
or slavery; and in proportion to the magnitude of 
the subject ought to be the freedom of the debate. 
It is only in this way that we can hope to arrive at 
truth, and fulfil the great responsibility which we 
hold to God and our country. Should I keep back 
my opinions at such a time, through fear of giving 
offence, I should consider myself as guilty of treason 
towards my country, and of an act of disloyalty 
towards the majesty of heaven, which I revere above 
all earthly kings. 

Mr. President, it is natural to man to indulge 
15 



1 6 BEST AMERICAN ORATIONS 

in the illusions of Hope. We are apt to shut our eyes 
against a painful truth, and listen to the song of that 
siren, till she transforms us into beasts. Is this the 
part of wise men, engaged in a great and arduous 
struggle for Uberty? Are we disposed to be of the 
number of those who, having eyes, see not, and hav- 
ing ears, hear not, the things which so nearly con- 
cern their temporal salvation? For my part, 
whatever anguish of spirit it may cost, I am willing 
to know the whole truth; to know the worst and to 
provide for it. 

I have but one lamp by which my feet are guided; 
and that is the lamp of experience. I know of no 
way of judging of the future but by the past. And 
judging by the past, I wish to know what there has 
been in the conduct of the British ministry for the 
last ten years, to justify those hopes with which 
gentlemen have been pleased to solace themselves 
and the House? Is it that insidious smile with 
which our petition has been lately received? Trust 
it not, sir; it will prove a snare to your feet. Suffer 
not yourselves to be betrayed with a kiss. Ask 
yourselves how this gracious reception of our peti- 
tion comports with these warlike preparations which 
cover our waters and darken our land. Are fleets 
and armies necessary to a work of love and recon- 
ciliation? Have we shown ourselves so unwilHng to 
be reconciled, that force must be called in to win back 
our love? Let us not deceive ourselves, sir. These 



PATRICK HENRY 17 

are the implements of war and subjugation; the last 
arguments to which kings resort. I ask gentlemen, 
Sir, what means this martial array, if its purpose be 
not to force us to submission? Can gentlemen as- 
sign any other possible motives for it? Has Great 
Britain any enemy, in this quarter of the world, 
to call for all this accumulation of navies and armies? 
No, sir, she has none. They are meant for us; they 
can be meant for no other. They are sent over to 
bind and rivet upon us those chains which the British 
ministry have been so long forging. 

And what have wt to oppose to them? Shall we 
try argument? Sir, we have been trying that for 
the last ten years. Have we anything new to offer 
on the subject? Nothing. We have held the sub- 
ject up in every light of which it is capable; but it 
has been all in vain. Shall we resort to entreaty 
and humble supplication? What terms shall we find 
which have not been already exhausted? Let us 
not, I beseech you. Sir, deceive ourselves longer. 
Sir, we have done everything that could be done, to 
avert the storm which is now coming on. We have 
petitioned; we have remonstrated; we have sup- 
pHcated; we have prostrated ourselves before the 
throne, and have implored its interposition to arrest 
the tyrannical hands of the ministry and Parliament. 
Our petitions have been slighted; our remonstrances 
have produced additional violence and insult; our 
supplications have been disregarded; and we have 



l8 BEST AMERICAN ORATIONS 

been spurned, with contempt, from the foot of the 
throne. 

In vain, after these things, may we indulge the 
fond hope of peace and reconciUation. There is no 
longer any room for hope. If we wish to be free 
— if we mean to preserve inviolate those inesti- 
mable privileges for which we have been so long con- 
tending — if we mean not basely to abandon the 
noble struggle in which we have been so long engaged, 
and which we have pledged ourselves never to aban- 
don until the glorious object of our contest shall be 
obtained, we must fight! I repeat it, Sir, we must 
fight ! An appeal to arms and to the God of Hosts is 
all that is left us! 

They tell us. Sir, that we are weak; unable to cope 
with so formidable an adversary. But when shall 
we be stronger? Will it be the next week, or the next 
year? Will it be when we are totally disarmed, 
and when a British guard shall be stationed in every 
house? Shall we gather strength by irresolution 
and inaction? Shall we acquire the means of effec- 
tual resistance, by lying supinely on our backs, and 
hugging the delusive phantom of Hope, until our 
enemies shall have bound us hand and foot? Sir, 
we are not weak, if we make a proper use of the means 
which the God of nature hath placed in our power. 
Three millions of people, armed in the holy cause of 
liberty, and in such a country as that which we pos- 
sess, are in\incible by any force which our enemy 



PATRICK HENRY 1 9 

can send against us. Besides, Sir, we shall not fight 
our battles alone. There is a just God who presides 
over the destinies of nations; and who will raise up 
friends to fight our battles for us. The battle. Sir, 
is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the 
active, the brave. Besides, Sir, we have no election. 
If we were base enough to desire it, it is now too late 
to retire from the contest. There is no retreat, but 
in submission and slavery! Our chains are forged! 
Their clanking may be heard on the plains of Boston ! 
The war is inevitable — and let it come ! I repeat it, 
Sir, let it come! 

It is in vain, Sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentle- 
men may cry peace, peace — but there is no peace. 
The war is actually begun ! The next gale that sweeps 
from the north will bring to our ears the clash of 
resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the 
field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that 
gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life 
so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the 
price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty 
God! I know not what course others may take; 
but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death! 



SAMUEL ADAMS 

I 722-1803 



Samuel Adams — born, bred, living, and dying in Boston — 
was one of the potent forces, not only in the American Revolu- 
tion itself, but in promoting and bringing it about. From the 
first, he refused to believe that any good could come out of 
further British control of America, repudiated parliamentary 
taxation without representation, rejected all compromising 
measures, busied himself in correspondence urging cooperation 
between the Colonies, aimed at independence, and did his best 
to ferment the war feeling. 

Adams early entered political life, being in the Massachusetts 
legislature in 1776. He was an influential member of the First 
and of the Second Continental Congresses, a signer of the 
Declaration of Independence, an earnest member of the Massa- 
chusetts Ratification Convention, and tireless in speaking, 
writing, publishing, the fieriest appeals to his countrymen. 
His speech on American Independence, here given, was de- 
livered in Philadelphia, August i, 1776, and had great weight. 

After the war and the new Constitution, he was Lieutenant- 
governor of Massachusetts in 1789 and Governor in 1794. 
His death at the age of eighty-two removed one of the most 
notable figures of that great time. 



22 



AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE 

Delivered at the State House, in Philadelphia, Au- 
gust I, ijy6 

Countrymen and Brethren: I would gladly 
have declined an honor to which I find myself un- 
equal. I have not the calmness and impartiaHty 
which the infinite importance of this occasion de- 
mands. I will not deny the charge of my enemies, 
that resentment for the accumulated injuries of our 
country, and an ardor for her glory, rising to enthu- 
siasm, may deprive me of that accuracy of judgment 
and expression which men of cooler passions may 
possess. Let me beseech you, then, to hear me with 
caution, to examine without prejudice, and to correct 
the mistakes into which I may be hurried by my 
zeal. 

Truth loves an appeal to the common sense of 
mankind. Your unperverted understandings can 
best determine on subjects of a practical nature. 
The positions and plans which are said to be above 
the comprehension of the multitude may be always 
suspected to be visionary and fruitless. He who 
made all men hath made the truths necessary to 
human happiness obvious to all. 



24 BEST AMERICAN ORATIONS 

Our forefathers threw off the yoke of popery in 
religion; for you is reserved the honor of leveHng 
the popery of politics. . . . What an affront to the 
King of the universe, to maintain that the happiness 
of a monster, sunk in debauchery and spreading 
desolation and murder among men, of a Cahgula, 
a Nero, or a Charles, is more precious in his sight 
than that of milHons of his supphant creatures, 
who do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with 
their God! No! in the judgment of Heaven there 
is no other superiority among men, than a superiority 
in wisdom and virtue. And can we have a safer 
model in forming ours? The Deity then has not 
given any order or family of men authority over 
others, and if any men have given it, they only could 
give it for themselves. Our forefathers, 'tis said, 
consented to be subject to the laws of Great Britain. 
I will not, at present, dispute it, nor mark out the 
limits and conditions of their submission; but will 
it be denied that they contracted to pay obedience, 
and to be under the control of Great Britain, because 
it appeared to them most beneficial in their then 
present circumstances and situations? We, my 
countrymen, have the same right to consult and pro- 
vide for our happiness, which they had to promote 
theirs. If they had a view to posterity in their 
contracts, it must have been to advance the felicity 
of their descendants. If they erred in their expec- 
tations and prospects, we can never be condemned 



SAMUEL ADAMS 25 

for a conduct which they would have recommended 
had they foreseen our present condition. 

Ye darkeners of counsel, who would make the 
property, lives, and religion of millions depend on 
the evasive interpretations of musty parchments; 
who would send us to antiquated charters, of uncer- 
tain and contradictory meaning, to prove that the 
present generation are not bound to be victims to 
cruel and unforgiving despotism, tell us whether our 
pious and generous ancestors bequeathed to us the 
miserable privilege of having the rewards of our 
honest industry, the fruits of those fields which they 
purchased and bled for, wrested from us at the will 
of men over whom we have no check? Did they con- 
tract for us that, with folded arms, we should expect 
that justice and mercy from brutal and inflamed 
invaders which have been denied to our suppUca- 
tions at the foot of the throne? Were we to hear 
our character as a people ridiculed with indifference ? 
Did they promise for us that our meekness and pa- 
tience should be insulted; our coasts harassed; our 
towns demolished and plundered, and our wives 
and offspring exposed to nakedness, hunger, and 
death, without feehng the resentment of men, and 
exerting those powers of self-preservation which God 
has given us ? No man had once a greater venera- 
tion for EngHshmen than I entertained. They were 
dear to me as branches of the same paternal trunk, 
and partakers of the same religion and laws; I still 



26 BEST AMERICAN ORATIONS 

view with respect the remains of the Constitution 
as I would a lifeless body which had once been ani- 
mated by a great and heroic soul. But when I am 
roused by the din of arms; when I behold legions of 
foreign assassins, paid by Englishmen to imbrue 
their hands in our blood; when I tread over the 
uncoffined bones of my countrymen, neighbors and 
friends; when I see the locks of a venerable father 
torn by savage hands, and a feeble mother, clasping 
her infants to her bosom, and on her knees imploring 
their lives from her own slaves, v/hom Englishmen 
have allured to treachery and murder; w^hen I behold 
my country, once the seat of industry, peace, and 
plenty, changed by Englishmen to a theater of blood 
and misery. Heaven forgive me, if I cannot root out 
those passions which it has implanted in my bosom 
and detest submission to a people who have either 
ceased to be human, or have not virtue enough to 
feel their own wretchedness and servitude. 

Men who content themselves with the semblance 
of truth, and a display of w^ords, talk much of our 
obligations to Great Britain for protection! Had 
she a single eye to our advantage? A nation of shop- 
keepers are very seldom so disinterested. Let us 
not be so amused wdth words; the extension of her 
commerce was her object. When she defended our 
coasts, she fought for her customers, and convoyed 
our ships loaded with wealth, which we had acquired 
for her by industry. She has treated us as beasts of 



SAMUEL ADAMS 27 

burden, whom the lordly masters cherish that they 
may carry a greater load. Let us inquire also against 
whom she has protected us? Against her own 
enemies with whom we had no quarrel, or only on her 
account, and against whom w^e always readily exerted 
our wealth and strength when they were required. 
Were these Colonies backward in giving assistance 
to Great Britain, when they w^ere called upon in 1739, 
to aid the expedition against Carthagena? They 
at that time sent three thousand men to join the 
British army, although the war commenced without 
their consent. But the last w^ar, 'tis said, was purely 
American. This is a vulgar error, which, like many 
others, has gained credit by being confidently re- 
peated. The dispute between the Courts of Great 
Britain and France related to the limits of Canada 
and Nova Scotia. The controverted territory was 
not claimed by any in the Colonies, but by the 
Crown of Great Britain. It was therefore their 
own quarrel. The infringement of a right which 
England had, by the Treaty of Utrecht, of trading 
in the Indian country of Ohio, was another cause of 
the war. The French seized large quantities of 
British manufactures, and took possession of a fort 
which a company of British merchants and factors 
had erected for the security of their commerce. The 
war was therefore waged in defence of lands claimed 
by the Crown, and for the protection of British prop- 
erty. The French at that time had no quarrel with 



28 BEST AMERICAN ORATIONS 

America; and, as appears by letters sent from their 
commander-in-chief, to some of the Colonies, wished 
to remain in peace with us. The part therefore 
which we then took, and the miseries to which we 
exposed ourselves, ought to be charged to our affec- 
tion for Britain. These Colonies granted more than 
their proportion to the support of the war. They 
raised, clothed, and maintained nearly twenty-five 
thousand men, and so sensible were the people of 
England of our great exertions, that a message was 
annually sent to the House of Commons purporting: 
"That His Majesty, being highly satisfied of the 
zeal and vigor with which his faithful subjects in 
North America had exerted themselves in defence of 
His Majesty's just rights and possessions, recom- 
mended it to the House, to take the same into con- 
sideration, and enable him to give them a proper 
compensation." 

But what purpose can arguments of this kind an- 
swer? Did the protection we received annul our 
rights as men, and lay us under an obligation of 
being miserable? Who among you, my country- 
men, that is a father, would claim authority to make 
your child a slave because you had nourished him 
in his infancy? It is a strange species of generosity 
which requires a return infinitely more valuable than 
anything it could have bestowed. . . . 

Courage, then, my countrymen! our contest is 
not only whether we ourselves shall be free, but 



SAMUEL ADAMS 29 

whether there shall be left to mankind an asylum 
on earth, for civil and religious hberty. Dismissing 
therefore the justice of our cause, as incontestable, 
the only question is, What is best for us to pursue 
in our present circumstances? 

The doctrine of dependence on Great Britain is, 
I believe, generally exploded; but as I would attend 
to the honest weakness of the simplest of men, you 
will pardon me if I offer a few words on that subject. 

We are now on this continent, to the astonishment 
of the world, three milUons of souls united in one 
common cause. We have large armies, well disci- 
plined and appointed with commanders inferior to 
none in mihtary skill, and superior in activity and 
zeal. We are furnished with arsenals and stores 
beyond our most sanguine expectations, and foreign 
nations are waiting to crown our success by their 
alliances. There are instances of, I would say, an 
almost astonishing Providence in our favor; our 
success has staggered our enemies, and almost given 
faith to infidels; so that we may truly say it is not 
our own arm which has saved us. 

The hand of heaven appears to have led us on to 
be, perhaps, humble instruments and means in the 
great providential dispensation which is completing. 
We have fled from the political Sodom; let us not 
look back, lest we perish and become a monument 
of infamy and derision to the world! For can we 
ever expect more unanimity and a better preparation 



3© BEST AMERICAN ORATIONS 

for defence; more infatuation of counsel among our 
enemies, and more valor and zeal among ourselves ? 
The same force and resistance which are sufficient 
to procure us our liberties will secure us a glorious 
independence and support us in the dignity of free, 
imperial States. We cannot suppose that our oppo- 
sition has made a corrupt and dissipated nation 
more friendly to America, or created in them a 
greater respect for the rights of mankind. We can 
therefore expect a restoration and estabhshment of 
our privileges, and a compensation for the injuries 
we have received from their want of power, from 
their fears, and not from their virtues. The unanim- 
ity and valor, which will effect an honorable peace, 
can render a future contest for our liberties unneces- 
sary. He who has strength to chain down the wolf 
is a madman if he lets him loose without drawing 
his teeth and paring his nails. 

From the day on which an accommodation takes 
place between England and America, on any other 
terms than as independent States, I shall date the 
ruin of this country. A poUtic minister will study 
to lull us into security, by granting us the full extent 
of our petitions. The warm sunshine of influence 
would melt down the \drtue, which the violence of 
the storm rendered more firm and unyielding. In a 
state of tranquillity, wealth, and luxury, our descend- 
ants would forget the arts of war, and the noble 
activity and zeal which made their ancestors invin- 



SAMUEL ADAMS 3I 

cible. Every art of corruption would be employed 
to loosen the bond of union which renders our assist- 
ance formidable. When the spirit of liberty which 
now animates our hearts and gives success to our 
arms is extinct, our numbers will accelerate our ruin, 
and render us easier victims to tyranny. Ye aban- 
doned minions of an infatuated ministry, if perad- 
venture any should yet remain among us! — remem- 
ber that a Warren and Montgomery are numbered 
among the dead. Contemplate the mangled bodies 
of our countrymen, and then say. What should be 
the reward of such sacrifices? Bid us and our pos- 
terity bow the knee, suppHcate the friendship, and 
plough, and sow, and reap, to glut the avarice of the 
men who have let loose on us the dogs of war to riot 
in our blood, and hunt us from the face of the earth ? 
If we love wealth better than liberty, the tranquilUty 
of servitude than the animating contest of freedom 
— go from us in peace. We ask you not counsels or 
arms. Crouch down and Hck the hands which feed 
you. May your chains set Ughtly upon you and 
may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen ! 
To unite the supremacy of Great Britain and the 
hberty of America, is utterly impossible. So vast 
a continent and of such a distance from the seat of 
empire will every day grow more unmanageable. 
The motion of so unwieldy a body cannot be directed 
with any despatch and uniformity, without commit- 
ting to the Parliament of Great Britain powers 



32 BEST AMERICAN ORATIONS 

inconsistent with our freedom. The authority and 
force which would be absolutely necessary for the 
preservation of the peace and good order of this 
continent, would put all our valuable rights within 
the reach of that nation. 

As the administration of government requires 
firmer and more numerous supports in proportion 
to its extent, the burdens imposed on us would be 
excessive, and we should have the melancholy pros- 
pect of their increasing on our posterity. . . . 

Prejudice, I confess, may warp our judgments. 
Let us hear the decision of Englishmen on this sub- 
ject, who cannot be suspected of partiaHty: "The 
Americans," say they, "are but Httle short of half 
our number. To this number they have grown from 
a small body of original settlers by a very rapid in- 
crease. The probability is that they will go on to 
increase, and that in fifty or sixty years they will be 
double our number; and form a mighty empire, con- 
sisting of a variety of States, all equal or superior 
to ourselves in all the arts and accomplishments which 
give dignity and happiness to human hfe. In that 
period will they be still bound to acknowledge that 
supremacy over them w^hich we now claim? Can 
there be any person who will assert this, or whose 
mind does not revolt at the idea of a vast continent, 
holding all that is valuable to it, at the discretion of 
a handful of people on the other side the Atlantic? 
But if at that period this would be unreasonable, 



SAMUEL ADAMS 33 

what makes it otherwise now? Draw the line if you 
can. But there is still a greater difficulty. Britain 
is now, I will suppose, the seat of liberty and virtue, 
and its legislature consists of a body of able and inde- 
pendent men, who govern with wisdom and justice. 
The time may come when all will be reversed; when 
its excellent constitution of government will be sub- 
verted; when, pressed by debts and taxes, it will 
be greedy to draw to itself an increase of rev- 
enue from every distant province, in order to ease 
its own burdens; when the influence of the Crown, 
strengthened by luxury and an universal profligacy 
of manners, will have tainted every heart, broken 
down every fence of liberty, and rendered us a nation 
of tame and contented vassals; when a general elec- 
tion will be nothing but a general auction of boroughs, 
and when the Parliament, the grand council of the 
nation, and once the faithful guardian of the state 
and a terror to e\dl ministers, will be degenerated 
into a body of sycophants, dependent and venal, 
always ready to confirm any measures, and httle 
more than a public court for registering royal edicts. 
Such, it is possible, may, some time or other, be the 
state of Great Britain. What will at that period be 
the duty of the Colonies? Will they be still bound 
to unconditional submission? Must they always 
continue an appendage to our Government and fol- 
low it implicitly through every change that can hap- 
pen to it? Wretched condition, indeed, of millions 



34 BEST AMERICAN ORATIONS 

of freemen as good as ourselves! Will you say that 
we now govern equitably, and that there is no danger 
of such revolution? Would to God that this were 
true. But will you not always say the same? Who 
shall judge whether we govern equitably or not? 
Can you give the Colonies any security that such a 
period will never come ?" 

No! The period, countrymen, is already come. 
The calamities were at our door. The rod of oppres- 
sion was raised over us. We were roused from our 
slumbers, and may we never sink into repose imtil 
we can convey a clear and undisputed inheritance 
to our posterity. This day we are called upon to give 
a glorious example of what the wisest and best of 
men were rejoiced to view only in speculation. This 
day presents the world with the most august specta- 
cle that its annals ever unfolded. Millions of free- 
men, deHberately and voluntarily forming themselves 
into a society for their common defence and common 
happiness. Immortal spirits of Hampden, Locke, 
and Sidney! will it not add to your benevolent joys 
to behold your posterity rising to the dignity of men, 
and evincing to the world the reaUty and expediency 
of your systems, and in the actual enjoyment of that 
equal liberty which you were happy, when on earth, 
in deUneating and recommending to mankind? 

Other nations have received their laws from con- 
querors; some are indebted for a constitution to the 
sufferings of their ancestors through revohdng cen- 



SAMUEL ADAMS 35 

tunes. The people of this country, alone, have 
formally and deliberately chosen a government for 
themselves, and with open and uninfluenced con- 
sent bound themselves into a social compact. Here, 
no man proclaims his birth or wealth as a title to 
honorable distinction, or to sanctify ignorance and 
vice with the name of hereditary authority. He 
who has most zeal and abiUty to promote pubhc 
felicity, let him be the servant of the public. This 
is the only line of distinction drawn by nature. Leave 
the bird of night to the obscurity for which nature 
intended him, and expect only from the eagle to 
brush the clouds with his wings, and look boldly in 
the face of the sun. 

Some who would persuade us that they have 
tender feelings for future generations, while they are 
insensible to the happiness of the present, are per- 
petually foreboding a train of dissensions under our 
popular system. Such men's reasoning amounts to 
this — give up all that is valuable to Great Britain, 
and then you will have no inducements to quarrel 
among yourselves; or suffer yourselves to be chained 
down by your enemies, that you may not be able to 
fight with your friends. 

This is an insult on your virtue as well as your 
common sense. Your unanimity this day and 
through the course of the war, is a decisive refutation 
of such invidious predictions. Our enemies have 
already had evidence that our present Constitution 



36 BEST AMERICAN ORATIONS 

contains in it the justice and ardor of freedom, and 
the wisdom and vigor of the most absolute system. 
When the law is the will of the people, it will be uni- 
form and coherent; but fluctuation, contradiction, 
and inconsistency of councils must be expected under 
those governments where every revolution in the 
ministry of a court produces one in the state. Such 
being the folly and pride of all ministers, that they 
ever pursue measures directly opposite to those of 
their predecessors. 

We shall neither be exposed to the necessary con- 
vulsions of elective monarchies, nor to the want of 
wisdom, fortitude, and virtue, to which hereditary 
succession is liable. In your hands it will be to per- 
petuate a prudent, active and just legislature, and 
which will never expire until you yourselves lose the 
virtues which give it existence. . . . 

By the beneficence of Providence, we shall behold 
our empire arising, founded on justice and the volun- 
tary consent of the people, and giving full scope to 
the exercise of those faculties and rights which most 
ennoble our species. Besides the advantages of lib- 
erty and the most equal constitution, heaven has 
given us a country with every variety of climate 
and soil, pouring forth in abundance whatever is 
necessary for the support, comfort, and strength of 
a nation. Within our own borders we possess all 
the means of sustenance, defence, and commerce; 
at the same time, these advantages are so distributed 



SAMUEL ADAMS 37 

among the different States of this continent, as if 
nature had in view to proclaim to us — Be united 
among yourselves, and you will want nothing from 
the rest of the world. . . . 

These natural advantages will enable us to remain 
independent of the world, or make it the interest of 
European powers to court our alliance, and aid in 
protecting us against the invasions of others. What 
argument therefore do we want, to show the equity 
of our conduct; or motive of interest to recommend 
it to our prudence? Nature points out the path, 
and our enemies have obliged us to pursue it. 

If there is any man so base or so weak as to prefer 
a dependence on Great Britain to the dignity and 
happiness of Hving a member of a free and indepen- 
dent nation, let me tell him that necessity now de- 
mands what the generous principle of patriotism 
should have dictated. 

We have now no other alternative than indepen- 
dence, or the most ignominious and galling servitude. 
The legions of our enemies thicken on our plains; 
desolation and death mark their bloody career; 
whilst the mangled corpses of our countrymen seem 
to cry out to us as a voice from heaven — ^'Will you 
permit our posterity to groan under the galling 
chains of our murderers? Has our blood been ex- 
pended in vain? Is the only reward which our 
constancy, till death, has obtained for our own coun- 
try, that it should be sunk into a deeper and more 



38 BEST AMERICAN ORATIONS 

ignominious vassalage? Recollect who are the men 
that demand your submission; to whose decrees 
you are invited to pay obedience!" . . . 

Countrymen! the men who now invite you to 
surrender your rights into their hands, are the men 
who have let loose the merciless savages to riot in 
the blood of their brethren — who have dared to 
estabhsh popery triumphant in our land — who 
have taught treachery to your slaves, and courted 
them to assassinate your wives and children. 

These are the men to whom we are exhorted to 
sacrifice the blessings which Providence holds out 
to us — the happiness, the dignity of uncontrolled 
freedom and independence. 

Let not your generous indignation be directed 
against any among us who may advise so absurd 
and maddening a measure. Their number is but few 
and daily decreases; and the spirit which can render 
them patient of slavery will render them contemptible 
enemies. 

Our Union is now complete; our Constitution 
composed, estabhshed, and approved. You are 
now the guardians of your own Hberties. We may 
justly address you, as the Decemviri did the Romans, 
and say — "Nothing that we propose can pass into a 
law without your consent. Be yourselves, O Ameri- 
cans, the authors of those laws on which your happi- 
ness depends." 

You have now in the field armies sufficient to 



SAMUEL ADAMS 



39 



repel the whole force of your enemies, and their base 
and mercenary auxiliaries. The hearts of your sol- 
diers beat high with the spirit of freedom — they are 
animated with the justice of their cause, and while 
they grasp their swords, can look up to heaven for as- 
sistance. Your adversaries are composed of wretches 
who laugh at the rights of humanity, who turn 
religion into derision, and would, for higher wages, 
direct their swords against their leaders or their 
coimtry. Go on, then, in your generous enterprise, 
with gratitude to Heaven, for past success, and confi- 
dence of it in the future. For my own part, I ask 
no greater blessing than to share with you the common 
danger and common glory. If I have a wish dearer 
to my soul, than that my ashes may be mingled with 
those of a Warren and Montgomery — it is that these 
American States may never cease to be free and inde- 
pendent! 



ALEXANDER HAMILTON 

1 757-1 804 



A VERY rare genius was this young West Indian, who at 
fifteen years of age broke away from a clerk's desk and came 
to New York to enter King's College (now Columbia). A 
brilliant scholar, an omnivorous reader, a cogent writer, he 
entered at once into the political interests of the time, published 
essays on colonial rights, urged the people to arms in public 
speech, and himself entered the Revolutionary army as a captain 
of artillery. 

He soon attracted Washington's attention, and became 
his aide-de-camp and secretary through the war, at times being 
intrusted with active military duties. His talents seemed 
equal to any emergency, and he rapidly rose in rank. 

Hamilton was essentially aristocratic in nature, feeling, and 
opinion, and, naturally, of the highest ambition. He took 
foremost part in the construction of the new Constitution, with 
urgent conviction of the need of a strong central government. 
He made several effective speeches in the Convention itself, 
and others in the New York Ratification Convention, — one of 
which is here given, — and wrote most of the famous papers 
of "The Federalist," in advocacy of ratifying the Constitution, 
He was Washington's first Secretary of the Treasury, his finan- 
cial policies winning him wide fame. He went to New York, 
and there stood the acknowledged head of the bar. 

In every relation of life, Hamilton showed wisdom, skill, 
prudence, energy, and unequaled capacity. Capable soldier, 
brilliant lawyer, comprehensive legislator, great financier, 
gifted with personal attractiveness, clear-minded, logical, and 
persuasive with pen and tongue, he used his remarkable in- 
tellect and all his powers in the service of America. And 
rightly America holds his memory as a precious legacy. 



42 



THE FEDERAL SENATE ^ 

I AM persuaded, Mr. Chairman, that I in my turn 
shall be indulged in addressing the committee. We 
all, in equal sincerity, profess to be anxious for the 
establishment of a republican government, on a safe 
and solid basis. It is the object of the wishes of 
every honest man in the United States, and I pre- 
sume I shall not be disbelieved, when I declare, that 
it is an object of all others, the nearest and most 
dear to my own heart. The means of accomplishing 
this great purpose become the most important study 
which can interest mankind. It is our duty to ex- 
amine all those means with peculiar attention, and 
to choose the best and most effectual. It is our duty 
to draw from nature, from reason, from examples, 
the best principles of poHcy, and to pursue and apply 
them in the formation of our government. We 
should contemplate and compare the systems which, 
in this examination, come under our view; distin- 
guish, with a careful eye, the defects and excellencies 
of each, and discarding the former, incorporate the 
latter, as far as circumstances will admit, into our 
Constitution. If we pursue a different course and 

* June 24 and 25, 1788. 
43 



44 BEST AMERICAN ORATIONS 

neglect this duty, we shall probably disappoint the 
expectations of our country and of the world. 

In the commencement of a revolution, which re- 
ceived its birth from the usurpations of tyranny, 
nothing was more natural than that the public mind 
should be influenced by an extreme spirit of jealousy. 
To resist these encroachments, and to nourish this 
spirit, was the great object of all our public and pri- 
vate institutions. The zeal for liberty became pre- 
dominant and excessive. In forming our Confedera- 
tion, this passion alone seemed to actuate us, and we 
appear to have had no other view than to secure our- 
selves from despotism. The object certainly was a 
valuable one, and deserved our utmost attention. 
But, Sir, there is another object, equally important, 
and which our enthusiasm rendered us little capable 
of regarding: I mean a principle of strength and 
stability in the organization of our government, 
and vigor in its operations. This purpose can never 
be accompHshed but by the establishment of some 
select body, formed peculiarly upon this principle. 
There are few positions more demonstrable than that 
there should be in every republic, some permanent 
body to correct the prejudices, check the intemperate 
passions, and regulate the fluctuations of a popular 
assembly. It is evident, that a body instituted for 
these purposes, must be so formed as to exclude, as 
much as possible, from its own character, those in- 
firmities and that mutability which it is designed to 



ALEXANDER HAMILTON 45 

remedy. It is therefore necessary that it should be 
small, that it should hold its authority during a con- 
siderable period, and that it should have such an 
independence in the exercise of its powers as will 
divest it as much as possible of local prejudices. 
It should be so formed as to be the center of political 
knowledge, to pursue always a steady line of conduct, 
and to reduce every irregular propensity to system. 
Without this estabUshment, we may make experi- 
ments without end, but shall never have an efficient 
government. 

It is an unquestionable truth, that the body of the 
people in every country desire sincerely its prosperity; 
but it is equally unquestionable, that they do not 
possess the discernment and stability necessary for 
systematic government. To deny that they are 
frequently led into the grossest errors by misinforma- 
tion and passion, would be a flattery which their own 
good sense must despise. That branch of adminis- 
tration especially, which involves our political rela- 
tions with foreign states, a community wall ever be 
incompetent to. These truths are not often held up 
in public assemblies; but they cannot be unknown 
to any who hear me. From these principles it follows, 
that there ought to be two distinct bodies in our 
government: one, which shall be immediately con- 
stituted by and peculiarly represent the people, and 
possess all the popular features; another, formed 
upon the principle, and for the purposes before 



46 BEST AMERICAN ORATIONS 

explained. Such considerations as these induced the 
convention who formed your State constitution to 
institute a senate upon the present plan. The his- 
tory of ancient and modern republics had taught 
them, that many of the evils which these republics 
suffered arose from the want of a certain balance and 
mutual control indispensable to a wise administra- 
tion; they were convinced that popular assemblies 
are frequently misguided by ignorance, by sudden 
impulses, and the intrigues of ambitious men; and 
that some firm barrier against these operations was 
necessary; they therefore instituted your Senate, 
and the benefits we have experienced have fully 
justified their conceptions. 

Now, Sir, what is the tendency of the proposed 
amendment? ^ To take away the stability of gov- 
ernment, by the depriving the Senate of its perma- 
nency; to make this body subject to the same weak- 
ness and prejudices which are incident to popular 
assemblies, and which it was instituted to correct; 
and by thus assimilating the complexion of the two 
branches, destroy the balance between them. The 
amendment will render the senator a slave to all 
the capricious humors among the people. It w^ll 
probably be here suggested, that the legislatures, not 
the people, are to have the power of recall. Without 

^ That no senator should serve more than six years in any 
term of twelve years, and that the State legislatures might at 
any time recall and replace any senator. 



ALEXANDER HAMILTON 47 

attempting to prove that the legislatures must be, 
in a great degree, the image of the multitude, in re- 
spect to Federal affairs, and that the same prejudices 
and factions will prevail, I insist that, in whatever 
body the power of recall is vested, the senator will 
perpetually feel himself in such a state of vassalage 
and dependence, that he never can possess that firm- 
ness which is necessary to the discharge of his great 
duty to the Union. 

Gentlemen, in their reasoning, have placed the 
interests of the several States and those of the United 
States in contrast: this is not a fair view of the sub- 
ject; they must necessarily be involved in each other. 
What we apprehend is, that some sinister prejudice, 
or some prevailing passion, may assume the form of 
a genuine interest. The influence of these is as 
powerful as the most permanent conviction of the 
public good; and against this influence we ought to 
provide. The local interests of a State ought in 
every case to give way to the interests of the Union; 
for when a sacrifice of one or the other is necessary, 
the former becomes only an apparent, partial in- 
terest, and should yield, on the principle that the 
small good ought never to oppose the great one. 
When you assemble from your several counties in 
the legislature, were every member to be guided 
only by the apparent interest of his county, gov- 
ernment would be impracticable. There must be a 
perpetual accommodation and sacrifice of local 



48 BEST AMERICAN ORATIONS 

advantage to general expediency; but the spirit of a 
mere popular assembly would rarely be actuated by 
this important principle. It is therefore absolutely 
I necessary that the Senate should be so formed, as 
to be unbiassed by false conceptions of the real in- 
terests, or undue attachment to the apparent good 
of their several States. . . . 

Every member must have been struck with an 
observation of a gentleman from Albany. Do what 
you will, says he, local prejudices and opinions will 
go into the Government. What! shall we then form 
a constitution to cherish and strengthen these preju- 
dices? Shall we confirm the distemper instead of 
remedying it? It is undeniable that there must be 
a control somewhere. Either the general interest is 
to control the particular interests, or the contrary. 
If the former, then certainly the Government ought 
to be so framed, as to render the power of control 
efficient to all intents and purposes: if the latter, a 
striking absurdity follows; the controlling powers 
must be as numerous as the varying interests, and 
the operations of government must therefore cease; 
for the moment you accommodate these different 
interests, which is the only way to set the Govern- 
ment in motion, you establish a general controlling 
power. Thus, whatever constitutional provisions 
are made to the contrary, every government will be 
at last driven to the necessity of subjecting the par- 
tial to the universal interest. The gentlemen ought 



ALEXANDER HAMILTON 49 

always, in their reasoning, to distinguish between 
the real, genuine good of a State, and the opinions 
and prejudices which may prevail respecting it ; the 
latter may be opposed to the general good, and con- 
sequently ought to be sacrificed; the former is so in- 
volved in it, that it never can be sacrificed. . . . 

Sir, if you consider but a moment the purposes 
for which the Senate w^as instituted, and the nature 
of the business which they are to transact, you will 
see the necessity of giving them duration. They, 
together with the President, are to manage all our 
concerns with foreign nations ; they must understand 
all their interests and their pohtical systems. This 
knowledge is not soon acquired — but a very small 
part is gained in the closet. Is it desirable, then, 
that new and unqualified members should be con- 
tinually thrown into that body? When public bodies 
are engaged in the exercise of general powers, you 
cannot judge of the propriety of their conduct but 
from the result of their systems. They may be 
forming plans which require time and dihgence to 
bring to maturity. It is necessary, therefore, that 
they should have a considerable and fixed duration, 
that they may make their calculations accordingly. 
If they are to be perpetually fluctuating they can 
never have that responsibility which is so important 
in republican governments. In bodies subject to 
frequent changes, great pohtical plans must be con- 
ducted by members in succession : a single assembly 



50 BEST AMERICAN ORATIONS 

can have but a partial agency in them, and conse- 
quently cannot properly be answerable for the final 
event. Considering the Senate, therefore, with a 
view to responsibility, duration is a very interesting 
and essential quality. 

There is another view in which duration in the 
Senate appears necessary. A government, change- 
able in its policy, must soon lose its sense of national 
character, and forfeit the respect of foreigners. 
Senators will not be soHcitous for the reputation of 
public measures in which they have had but a 
temporary concern, and will feel lightly the burden 
of public disapprobation in proportion to the number 
of those who partake of the censure. Our political 
rivals will ever consider our mutable counsels as evi- 
dence of deficient wisdom, and will be little appre- 
hensive of our arriving at any exalted station in the 
scale of powTr. Such are the internal and external 
disadvantages which would result from the principle 
contended for. Were it admitted, I am fully per- 
suaded. Sir, that prejudices would govern the public 
deliberations, and passions rage in the councils of 
the Union. If it were necessary, I could illustrate 
my subject by historical facts; I could travel through 
an extensive field of detail, and demonstrate that 
wherever the fatal principle of the head suffering 
the control of the members, has operated, it has 
proved a fruitful source of commotions and disorder. 

This, Sir, is the first fair opportunity that has been 



ALEXANDER HAMILTON 5 1 

offered of deliberately correcting the errors in gov- 
ernment. Instability has been a prominent and very 
defective feature in most republican systems. It is 
the first to be seen and the last to be lamented by a 
philosophical inquirer. It has operated most bane- 
fully in our infant republic. It is necessary that we 
apply an immediate remedy, and eradicate the 
poisonous principle from our government. If this 
be not done, Sir, we shall feel and posterity will be 
convulsed by a painful malady. 

[Jime 2j, Hamilton continuing.] 

Mr. Chairman: In debates of this kind it is ex- 
tremely easy, on either side, to say a great number 
of plausible things. It is to be acknowledged that 
there is even a certain degree of truth in the reason- 
ings on both sides. In this situation it is the province 
of judgment and good sense to determine their force 
and appUcation, and how far the arguments ad- 
vanced on one side are balanced by those on the 
other. The ingenious dress in which both may ap- 
pear renders it a difficult task to make this decision, 
and the mind is frequently unable to come to a safe 
and solid conclusion. On the present question, some 
of the principles on each side are admitted, and the 
conclusions drawn from them denied, while other 
principles, with their inferences, are rejected alto- 
gether. It is the business of the committee to seek 
the truth in this labyrinth of argument. 



52 BEST AMERICAN ORATIONS 

There are two objects in forming systems of gov- 
ernment, — safety for the people and energy in the 
administration. When these objects are united, the 
certain tendency of the system will be to the public 
welfare. If the latter object be neglected, the 
people's security will be as certainly sacrificed as 
by disregarding the former. Good constitutions are 
formed upon a comparison of the liberty of the indi- 
vidual with the strength of government; if the tone 
of either be too high, the other will be weakened too 
much. It is the happiest possible mode of conciliat- 
ing these objects to institute one branch peculiarly 
endowed with sensibility, another with knowledge 
and firmness. Through the opposition and mutual 
control of these bodies, the Government will reach, 
in its operations, the perfect balance between liberty 
and power. . . . 

Sir, the senators will constantly be attended with 
a reflection that their future existence is absolutely 
in the power of the States. Will not this form a 
powerful check? It is a reflection which appHes 
closely to their feelings and interests, and no candid 
man, who thinks deliberately, will deny that it would 
be alone a sufficient check. The legislatures are to 
provide the mode of electing the President, and must 
have a great influence over the electors. Indeed, 
they convey their influence through a thousand 
channels into the general government. Gentlemen 
have endeavored to show that there will be no clash- 



ALEXANDER HAMILTON 53 

ing of local and general interests; they do not seem 
to have sufficiently considered the subject. We have 
in this State ^ a duty of sixpence per pound on salt, 
and it operates lightly and with advantage ; but such 
a duty would be very burdensome to some of the 
States. If Congress should, at any time, find it 
convenient to impose a salt tax, would it not be op- 
posed by the Eastern States? Being themselves 
incapable of feehng the necessity of the measure, 
they could only feel its apparent injustice. Would 
it be wise to give the New England States a power 
to defeat this measure, by recalling their senators 
who may be engaged for it? I beg the gentlemen 
once more to attend to the distinction between 
the real and apparent interests of the States. I ad- 
mit that the aggregate of individuals constitutes the 
government; yet every State is not the government; 
every petty district is not the government. Sir, 
in our State legislatures, a comxpromise is frequently 
necessary between the interests of counties; the same 
must happen in the general government between 
States. In this the few must yield to the many; 
or, in other words, the particular must be sacrificed 
to the general interest. If the members of Congress 
are too dependent on the State legislatures, they will 
be eternally forming secret combinations from local 
views. This is reasoning from the plainest principles. 
Their interest is interwoven with their dependence, 

1 New York. 



54 BEST AMERICAN ORATIONS 

and they will necessarily yield to the impression of 
their situation. . . . 

It has been remarked that there is an incon- 
sistency in our admitting that the equal votes in 
the Senate were given to secure the rights of the 
States, and, at the same time, holding up the idea 
that their interests should be sacrificed to those of 
the Union. But the committee certainly perceive 
the distinction between the rights of the State and 
its interests. The rights of a State are defined by 
the Constitution, and cannot be invaded without 
a violation of it; but the interests of a State have 
no connection with the Constitution, and may be 
in a thousand instances constitutionally sacrificed. 
An uniform tax is perfectly constitutional, and yet 
it may operate oppressively upon certain members 
of the Union. The gentlemen are afraid that their 
State governments will be aboUshed. But, Sir, 
their existence does not depend upon the laws of 
the United States. Congress can no more abolish 
the State governments than they can dissolve the 
Union. The whole Constitution is repugnant to it, 
and yet the gentlemen would introduce an additional 
useless provision against it. It is proper that the 
influence of the States should prevail to a certain 
extent. But shall the individual States be the judges 
how far? Shall an unlimited power be left them to 
determine in their own favor? . . . 

Sir, in contending for a rotation, the gentlemen 



ALEXANDER HAMILTON 



55 



carry their zeal beyond all reasonable bounds. I 
am convinced that no government, founded on this 
feeble principle, can operate well. I believe, also, 
that we shall be singular in this proposal. We 
have not felt the embarrassments resulting from 
rotation, that other States have: and we hardly 
know the strength of their objections to it. There 
is no probability that we shall ever persuade a ma- 
jority of the States to agree to this amendment. 
The gentlemen deceive themselves. The amend- 
ment would defeat their own design. When a man 
knows he must quit his station, let his merit be what 
it may, he will turn his attention chiefly to his own 
emolument: nay, he will feel temptations, which 
few other situations furnish, to perpetuate his power 
by unconstitutional usurpations. Men will pursue 
their interests. It is as easy to change human 
nature as to oppose the strong current of the selfish 
passions. A wise legislator will gently divert the 
channel, and direct it, if possible, to the public good. 



GEORGE WASHINGTON 

1732-1799 



It cannot be needful to say much here about the best known 
of all Americans. His Virginian birth; his comparatively 
brief schooling (ceasing when he was sixteen) ; his surveying 
expeditions in wild regions; his precocious military experience; 
his diplomacy with the French forces in Pennsylvania districts; 
his exploit at Fort Necessity, and later valuable service and 
wonderful escape in the Braddock defeat; his driving the 
French from Western frontiers; his retirement and marriage; 
his work as colonial and congressional legislator; his entrance 
into the army as commander-in-chief, and diflficult, perilous, 
disheartening, but finally triumphant career through the Revo- 
lution, — all are familiar. 

His services in forming and ratifying the Constitution and 
his two presidential terms as chief of the new Republic empha- 
size the peculiar quality of Washington's nature, in that, with- 
out special brilliancy (except his thunderbolt speed in war after 
patient awaiting of opportunity), his character was so admirably 
balanced that all men rested upon his judgment and his integ- 
rity. At nineteen, he was Assistant Adjutant-General of 
Virginia; at twenty-six, "Commander-in-Chief of all the forces 
raised and to be raised in Virginia " (French and English War) ; 
in 1776, acclaimed head of the Revolutionary army; later, 
President of the Constitutional Convention; finally, through 
two terms, President of the United States, — everywhere and 
always trusted as leader. 

Washington's public addresses were all in the elaborately 
formal style of his time, unimpassioned, lucid, fundamentally 
sensible, and elevated in sentiment. The one here selected is 
his Farewell Address to the people (September 17, 1796) 
before his final retirement in the December following. It is 
one of the American classics. The kindly wisdom of its coun- 
sels cannot be too often read and pondered by Americans, — 
especially in these days of expanding powers and interests, 
temptations of ambition, loosening of religious ties, clashing of 
party conflicts, and divers allurements, against which the vener- 
able chieftain proffered his sagacious, prophetic warnings. 

58 



FAREWELL ADDRESS 

Friends and Fellow-citizens : The period for a 
new election of a citizen, to administer the executive 
government #f the United States, being not far dis- 
tant, and the time actually arrived when your thoughts 
must be employed in designating the person who 
is to be clothed with that important trust, it appears 
to me proper, especially as it may conduce to a more 
distinct expression of the pubHc voice, that I should 
now apprise you of the resolution I have formed, 
to decline being considered among the number of 
those out of whom a choice is to be made. 

I beg you, at the same time, to do me the justice 
to be assured that this resolution has not been taken 
mthout a strict regard to all the considerations ap- 
pertaining to the relation which binds a dutiful 
citizen to his country; and that in withdrawing 
the tender of service which silence, in my situation, 
might imply, I am influenced by no diminution of 
zeal for your future interest, no deficiency of grate- 
ful respect for your past kindness, but am supported 
by a full conviction that the step is compatible with 
both. 

The acceptance of and continuance hitherto, in 
59 



6o BEST AMERICAN ORATIONS 

the office to which your suffrages have twice called 
me, have been a uniform sacrifice of incHnation 
to the opinion of duty, and to a deference for what 
appeared to be your desire. I constantly hoped that 
it would have been much earlier in my power, con- 
sistently with motives which I was not at liberty 
to disregard, to return to that retirement from which 
I had been reluctantly drawn. The strength of 
my incUnation to do this, previous to the last elec- 
tion, had even led to the preparation of an address, 
to declare it to you; but mature reflection on the 
then perplexed and critical posture of our affairs 
with foreign nations, and the unanimous advice of 
persons entitled to my confidence, impelled me to 
abandon the idea. 

I rejoice that the state of your concerns, external 
as well as internal, no longer renders the pursuit 
of incHnation incompatible with the sentiment of 
duty or propriety, and am persuaded, whatever 
partiality may be retained for my services, that in 
the present circumstances of our country, you will 
not disapprove of my determination to retire. 

The impressions with which I first undertook the 
arduous trust were explained on the proper occasion. 
In the discharge of this trust I will only say, that 
I have with good intentions contributed towards 
the organization and administration of the govern- 
ment, the best exertions of which a very fallible 
judgment was capable. Not imconscious, in the 



GEORGE WASHINGTON 6l 

outset, of the inferiority of my qualifications, ex- 
perience, in my own eyes, perhaps still more in the 
eyes of others, has strengthened the motives to 
diffidence of myself; and every day the increasing 
weight of years admonishes me more and more that 
the shade of retirement is as necessary to me as it 
will be welcome. Satisfied that if any circumstances 
have given peculiar value to niy services they were 
temporary, I have the consolation to believe, that 
while choice and prudence invite me to quit^ the 
political scene, patriotism does not forbid it. 

In looking forward to the moment which is in- 
tended to terminate the career of my pubHc fife, 
my feeHngs do not permit me to suspend the deep 
acknowledgment of that debt of gratitude which I 
owe to my beloved country for the many honors 
it has conferred upon me; still more for the steadfast 
confidence with which it has supported me; and for 
the opportunities I have thence enjoyed of mani- 
festing my inviolable attachment, by services, 
faithful and persevering, though in usefulness un- 
equal to my zeal. If benefits have resulted to our 
country from these services, let it always be re- 
membered to your praise, and as an instructive 
example in our annals, that under circumstances 
in which the passions, agitated in every direction, 
were hable to mislead, amidst appearances some- 
times dubious, vicissitudes of fortune often dis- 
couraging, in situations in which not unfrequently 



62 BEST AMERICAN ORATIONS 

want of success has countenanced the spirit of 
criticism, the constancy of your support was the 
essential prop of the efforts, and the guarantee of 
the plans by which they were effected. Profoundly 
penetrated with this idea, I shall carry it with me 
to my grave, as a strong incitement to unceasing 
wishes that heaven may continue to you the choicest 
tokens of its beneficence; that your union and 
brotherly affection may be perpetual; that the free 
Constitution, which is the work of your hands, may 
be sacredly maintained; that its administration, 
in every department, may be stamped with wisdom 
and virtue ; that, in fine, the happiness of the people 
of these States, under the auspices of Hberty, may 
be made complete by so careful a preservation and 
so prudent a use of this blessing as will acquire to 
them the glory of recommending it to the applause, 
the affection, and adoption of every nation which 
is yet a stranger to it. 

Here, perhaps, I ought to stop. But a solicitude 
for your welfare, which cannot end but with my Hfe, 
and the apprehension of danger, natural to that 
solicitude, urge me, on an occasion like the present, 
to offer to your solemn contemplation, and to rec- 
ommend to your frequent review, some sentiments, 
which are the result of much reflection, of no incon- 
siderable observation, and which appear to me 
all-important to the permanency of your fehcity 
as a people. These will be offered to you with 



GEORGE WASHINGTON 6^ 

the more freedom, as you can only see in them the 
disinterested warnings of a parting friend, who can 
possibly have no personal motive to bias his counsel. 
Nor can I forget, as an encouragement to it, your 
indulgent reception of my sentiments on a former 
and not dissimilar occasion. 

Interwoven as is the love of liberty with every 
ligament of your hearts, no recommendation of mine 
is necessary to fortify or confirm the attachment. 

The unity of government which constitutes you 
one people is also now dear to you. It is justly 
so, for it is a main pillar in the edifice of your real 
independence, the support of your tranquillity at 
home, your peace abroad, of your safety, of your 
prosperity, of that very liberty which you so highly 
prize. But as it is easy to foresee, that from different 
causes and from different quarters, much pains will 
be taken, many artifices employed, to weaken in 
your minds the con\dction of this truth; as this is 
the point in your poHtical fortress against which the 
batteries of internal and external enemies will be 
most constantly and actively (though often covertly 
and insidiously) directed, it is of infinite moment 
that you should properly estimate the immense 
value of your national Union, to your collective and 
individual happiness; that you should cherish a 
cordial, habitual, and immovable attachment to 
it; accustoming yourselves to think and speak of 
it as of the palladium of your poUtical safety and 



64 BEST AMERICAN ORATIONS 

prosperity, watching for its preservation with jealous 
anxiety; discountenancing whatever may suggest 
even a suspicion that it can in any event be aban- 
doned; and indignantly frowning upon the first 
dawning of every attempt to ahenate any portion 
of our country from the rest, or to enfeeble the sacred 
ties which now Hnk together the various parts. 

For this you have every inducement of sympathy 
and interest. Citizens, by birth or choice, of a 
common country, that country has a right to con- 
centrate your affections. The name of American, 
which belongs to you in your national capacity, 
must always exalt the just pride of patriotism 
more than any appellation derived from local dis- 
criminations. With slight shades of difference, 
you have the same rehgion, manners, habits, and 
political principles. You have, in a common cause, 
fought and triumphed together; the independence 
and liberty you possess are the work of joint councils 
and joint efforts, of common dangers, sufferings, 
and successes. 

But these considerations, however powerfully 
they address themselves to your sensibihty, are 
greatly outweighed by those which apply more 
immediately to your interest. Here every portion 
of our country finds the most commanding motives 
for carefully guarding and preserving the union of 
the w^hole. 

The North, in an unrestrained intercourse with 



GEORGE WASHINGTON 65 

the South, protected by the equal laws of a common 
government, finds, in the productions of the latter, 
great additional resources of maritime and com- 
mercial enterprise, and precious materials of manu- 
facturing industry. The South, in the same inter- 
course, benefiting by the agency of the North, sees 
its agriculture grow and its commerce expand. 
Turning partly into its own channels the seamen of 
the North, it finds its particular navigation invigo- 
rated; and while it contributes, in different ways, 
to nourish and increase the general mass of the 
national navigation, it looks forward to the protection 
of a maritime strength, to which itself is unequally 
adapted. The East, in like intercourse with the 
West, already finds, and in the progressive improve- 
ment of interior communications, by land and water, 
will more and more find a valuable vent for the 
commodities which it brings from abroad or manu- 
factures at home. The West derives from the East 
supplies requisite to its growth and comfort, and 
what is perhaps of still greater consequence, it must 
of necessity owe the secure enjoyment of indispensa- 
ble outlets for its own productions to the weight, 
influence, and the future maritime strength of the 
Atlantic side of the Union, directed by an indis- 
soluble community of interest as one nation. Any 
other tenure, by which the West can hold this essen- 
tial advantage, whether derived from its own sep- 
arate strength, or from an apostate and unnat- 



66 BEST AMERICAN ORATIONS 

ural connection with any foreign power, must be 
intrinsically precarious. 

While, then, every part of our country thus feels 
an immediate and particular interest in union, all 
the parts combined cannot fail to find, in the united 
mass of means and efforts, greater strength, greater 
resource, proportionably . greater security from ex- 
ternal danger, a less frequent interruption of their 
peace by foreign nations; and what is of inestimable 
value, they must derive from union an exemption 
from those broils and wars betw^een themselves which 
so frequently afflict neighboring countries, not tied 
together by the same government, which their own 
rivalships alone would be sufficient to produce, but 
which opposite foreign alliances, attachments, and 
intrigues, would stimulate and embitter. Hence, 
likewise, they will avoid the necessity of those over- 
grown military establishments, which, under any 
form of government, are inauspicious to liberty, and 
which are to be regarded as particularly hostile to 
republican liberty. In this sense it is that your 
Union ought to be considered as a main prop of your 
liberty, and that the love of the one ought to endear 
to you the preservation of the other. 

These considerations speak a persuasive language 
to every reflecting and virtuous mind, and exhibit 
the continuance of the Union as a primary object 
of patriotic desire. Is there a doubt whether a 
common government can embrace so large a sphere ? 



GEORGE WASHINGTON 67 

Let experience solve it. To listen to mere specula- 
tion, in such a case, were criminal. We are au- 
thorized to hope that a proper organization of the 
whole, with the auxiUary agency of governments 
for the respective subdivisions, will afford a happy 
issue to the experiment. 'Tis well worth a fair and 
full experiment. With such powerful and obvious 
motives to union, affecting all parts of our country, 
while experience shall not have demonstrated its 
impracticabihty, there will always be reason to 
distrust the patriotism of those who, in any quarter, 
may endeavor to weaken its hands. 

In contemplating the causes, which may disturb 
our Union, it occurs, as a matter of serious concern, 
that any ground should have been furnished for 
characterizing parties by geographical discriminations 
— Northern and Southern, Atlantic and Western — 
whence designing men may endeavor to excite a 
belief that there is a real difference of local interests 
and views. One of the expedients of party to 
acquire influence within particular districts is to mis- 
represent the opinions and aims of other districts. 
You cannot shield yourselves too much against the 
jealousies and heart-burnings w^hich spring from 
these misrepresentations; they tend to render alien 
to each other those who ought to be bound together 
by fraternal affection. The inhabitants of our 
Western country have lately had a useful lesson on 
tliis head. They have seen, in the negotiation by 



68 BEST AMERICAN ORATIONS 

the Executive, and in the unanimous ratification by 
the Senate, of the treaty with Spain, and in the 
universal satisfaction of that event throughout the 
United States, a decisive proof how unfounded were 
the suspicions propagated among them of a poUcy 
in the general government and in the Atlantic States, 
unfriendly to their interests in regard to the Missi- 
sippi; they have been witnesses to the formation of 
two treaties — that with Great Britain and that 
with Spain — which secure to them everything 
they could desire, in respect to our foreign relations, 
towards confirming their prosperity. Will it not 
be their wisdom to rely, for the preservation of these 
advantages, on the Union by which they were pro- 
cured? Will they not henceforth be deaf to those 
advisers, if such they are, who would sever them 
from their brethren, and connect them with aliens? 
To the eflScacy and permanency of your Union, 
a government for the whole is indispensable. No 
alliances, however strict, between the parts, can be 
an adequate substitute; they must inevitably ex- 
perience the infractions and interruptions; which 
alliances, in all times, have experienced. Sensible 
of this momentous truth, you have improved upon 
your first essay by the adoption of a constitution of 
government better calculated than your former 
for an intimate union, and for the efficacious man- 
agement of your common concerns. This govern- 
ment, the offspring of our own choice, uninfluenced 



GEORGE WASHINGTON 69 

and unawed, adopted upon full investigation and 
mature deliberation, completely free in its principles, 
in the distribution of its powers uniting security 
with energy, and containing within itself a provision 
for its own amendment, has a just claim to your 
confidence and your support. Respect for its 
authority, compliance with its laws, acquiescence 
in its measures, are duties enjoined by the funda- 
mental maxims of true liberty. The basis of our 
political systems is the right of the people to make 
and to alter the constitutions of government. But 
the constitution, which at any time exists, until 
changed by an explicit and authentic act of the whole 
people, is sacredly obligatory upon all. The very 
idea of the power and the rights of the people to 
establish a government presupposes the duty of 
every individual to obey the established government. 
All obstructions to the execution of the laws, all 
combinations and associations, under whatever 
plausible character, with the real design to direct, 
control, counteract, or awe the regular deliberation 
and action of the constituted authorities, are de- 
structive of this fundamental principle, and of fatal 
tendency. They serve to organize faction, to give 
it an artificial and extraordinary force, to put in the 
place of the delegated will of the nation, the will of 
a party, often a small, but artful and enterprising 
minority of the community; and according to the 
alternate triumphs of different parties, to make the 



70 



BEST AMERICAN ORATIONS 



public administration the mirror of the ill-concerted 
and incongruous projects of faction, rather than the 
organ of consistent and wholesome plans, digested by 
common councils, and modified by mutual interests. 

However combinations or associations of the above 
description may now and then answer popular ends, 
they are likely, in the course of time and things, to 
become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, 
and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the 
power of the people, and to usurp for themselves 
the reins of government; destroying afterward the 
very engines which have lifted them to unjust 
dominion. 

Toward the preservation of your government and 
the permanency of your present happy state, it is 
requisite, not only that you speedily discountenance 
irregular opposition to its acknowledged authority, 
but also that you resist with care the spirit of in- 
novation upon its principles, however specious the 
pretexts. One method of assault may be to effect, 
in the forms of the Constitution, alterations which 
will impair the energy of the system, and thus to 
undermine what cannot be directly overthrown. 
In all the changes to which you may be invited, 
remember that time and habit are at least as neces- 
sary to fix the true character of governments as of 
other human institutions; that experience is the 
surest standard by which to test the real tendency 
of the existing constitution of a country; that 



GEORGE WASHINGTON 7 1 

facility in changes, upon the credit of mere hy- 
pothesis and opinion, exposes to perpetual change, 
from the endless variety of hypothesis and opinion. 
And remember especially, that for the efficient 
management of your common interests, in a country 
so extensive as ours, a government of as much vigor 
as is consistent v/ith the perfect security of liberty, 
is indispensable. Liberty itself will find in such 
a government, with powers properly distributed 
and adjusted, its surest guardian. It is, indeed, 
little else than a name, where the government is 
too feeble to withstand the enterprises of faction; 
to confine each member of society within the limits 
prescribed by the laws, and to maintain all in the 
secure and tranquil enjoyment of the rights of 
person and property. 

I have already intimated to you the danger of 
parties in the State, with particular reference to 
the founding of them on geographical discrimination. 
Let me now take a more comprehensive view, and 
warn you, in the most solemn manner, against the 
baneful effects of the spirit of party, generally. 

This spirit, unfortunately, is inseparable from our 
nature, having its root in the strongest passions of 
the human mind. It exists under different shapes, 
in all governments, more or less stifled, controlled, 
or repressed. But in those of the popular form, it 
is seen in its greatest rankness, and is truly their 
worst enemy. 



72 



BEST AMERICAN ORATIONS 



The alternate domination of one faction over 
another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge, natural 
to party dissensions, which, in different ages and 
countries, has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, 
is itself a frightful despotism. But this leads, at 
length, to a more formal and permanent despotism. 
The disorders and miseries, which result, gradually 
incline the minds of men to seek security and repose 
in the absolute power of an individual; and sooner 
or later, the chief of some prevaiHng faction, more 
able or more fortunate than his competitors, turns 
this disposition to the purposes of his own elevation 
on the ruins of public Hberty. 

Without looking forward to an extremity of this 
kind, (which, nevertheless, ought not to be entirely 
out of sight,) the common and continual mischiefs 
of the spirit of party are sufficient to make it the 
interest and duty of a wise people to discourage and 
restrain it. 

It serves to always distract the public councils, 
and enfeeble the pubKc administration. It agitates 
the community with ill-founded jealousies and false 
alarms; kindles the animosity of one part against 
another; foments occasionally riot and insurrection. 
It opens the door to foreign influence and corruption, 
which find a facilitated access to the government 
itself, through the channels of party passion. Thus 
the policy and the will of one country are subjected 
to the poUcy and will of another. 



GEORGE WASHINGTON 



73 



There is an opinion, that parties, in free countries, 
are useful checks upon the administration of the 
government, and serve to keep aHve the spirit of 
liberty. This, ^\^thin certain limits, is probably 
true; and, in governments of a monarchical cast, 
patriotism may look with indulgence, if not with 
favor, upon the spirit of party. But in those of 
popular character, in governments purely elective, 
it is a spirit not to be encouraged. From their 
natural tendency, it is certain there will always be 
enough of that spirit for every salutary purpose. 
And there being constant danger of excess, the effort 
ought to be, by force of public opinion, to mitigate 
and assuage it. A fire not to be quenched, it demands 
a uniform vigilance to prevent its bursting into a 
flame, lest, instead of warming, it should consume. 

It is important, likewise, that the habits of think- 
ing, in a free country, should inspire caution in those 
intrusted with its administration, to confine them- 
selves within their respective constitutional spheres, 
avoiding, in the exercise of the powers of one depart- 
ment, to encroach upon another. The spirit of 
encroachment tends to consolidate the powers of all 
the departments in one, and thus to create, whatever 
the form of government, a real despotism. A just 
estimate of that love of power, and proneness to 
abuse it, which predominate in the human heart, 
is sufficient to satisfy us of the truth of this position. 
The necessity of reciprocal checks in the exercise of 



74 BEST AMERICAN ORATIONS 

political power, by dividing and distributing it into 
different depositaries, and constituting each the 
guardian of the public weal against invasion by the 
other, has been evinced by experiments ancient and 
modern: some of them in our country, and under 
our own eyes. To preserve them must be as necessary 
as to institute them. If, in the opinion of the people, 
the distribution or modification of the constitutional 
powers, be, in any particular, wTong, let it be cor- 
rected by an amendment in the way which the Con- 
stitution designates. But let there be no change by 
usurpation; for though this, in one instance, may be 
the instrument of good, it is the customary weapon 
by which free governments are destroyed. The 
precedent must always greatly overbalance, in per- 
manent evil, any partial or transient benefit which 
the use can at any time yield. 

Of all the dispositions and habits, which lead to 
political prosperity, religion and morality are in- 
dispensable supports. In vain would that man 
claim the tribute of patriotism, who should labor to 
subvert these great pillars of human happiness, 
these firmest props of the destinies of men and citi- 
zens. The mere politician, equally with the pious 
man, ought to respect and to cherish them. A volume 
could not trace all their connection with private and 
public feHcity. Let it simply be asked, where is 
the security for property, for reputation, for life, 
if the sense of religious obUgation desert the oaths, 



GEORGE WASHINGTON 75 

which are the instruments of investigation in courts 
of justice? And let us with caution indulge the 
supposition that morality can be maintained without 
religion. Whatever may be conceded to the in- 
fluence of refined education on minds of pecuHar 
structure, reason and experience both forbid us to 
expect, that national morahty can prevail in ex- 
clusion of religious principles. 

It is substantially true, that virtue or morality 
is a necessary spring of proper government. The 
rule, indeed, extends with more or less force to every 
species of free government. Who, that is a sincere 
friend to it, can look with indifference upon attempts 
to shake the foundation of the fabric? 

Promote, then, as an object of primary importance, 
institutions for the general diffusion of knowledge. 
In proportion as the structure of a government 
gives force to public opinion, it is essential that public 
opinion should be enlightened. 

As a very important source of strength and security, 
cherish public credit. One method of preserving 
it is to use it as sparingly as possible; avoiding 
occasions of expense by cultivating peace, but re- 
membering also that timely disbursements to pre- 
pare for danger frequently prevent much greater 
disbursements to repel it; avoiding likewise the 
accumulation of debt, not only by shunning occa- 
sions of expense, but by vigorous exertions in time 
of peace to discharge the debts which unavoidable 



76 BEST AMERICAN ORATIONS 

wars may have occasioned, not ungenerously throw- 
ing upon posterity the burden which w^e ourselves 
ought to bear. The execution of these maxims 
belongs to your representatives, but it is necessary 
that public opinion should cooperate. To facilitate 
to them the performance of their duty, it is essential 
that you should practically bear in mind, that to- 
w^ards the payment of debts there must be revenue; 
that to have revenue there must be taxes; that no 
taxes can be devised which are not more or less in- 
convenient and unpleasant; that the intrinsic em- 
barrassment, inseparable from the selection of the 
proper objects (which is always the choice of diffi- 
culties) ought to be a decisive motive for a candid 
construction of the conduct of the government in 
making it, and for a spirit of acquiescence in the 
measures for obtaining revenue which the public 
exigencies may at any time dictate. 

Observe good faith and justice towards all nations; 
cultivate peace and harmony with all; religion and 
morality enjoin this conduct; and can it be that 
good pohcy does not equally enjoin it? It will be 
worthy of a free, enUghtened, and, at no distant 
period, a great nation, to give to mankind the mag- 
nanimous and too novel example of a people always 
guided by an exalted justice and benevolence. 
Who can doubt that, in the course of time and things, 
the fruits of such a plan would richly repay any 
temporary advantages that might be lost by a steady 



GEORGE WASHINGTON 77 

adherence to it? Can it be, that Providence has not 
connected the permanent feUcity of a nation with its 
virtue? The experiment, at least, is recommended 
by every sentiment which ennobles human nature. 
Alas! is it rendered impossible by its vices? 

In the execution of such a plan, nothing is more 
essential than that permanent, inveterate antipa- 
thies against particular nations, and passionate 
attachments for others, should be excluded; and 
that in place of them, just and amicable feelings 
towards all should be cultivated. The nation, which 
indulges towards another an habitual hatred, or an 
habitual fondness, is in some degree a slave. It is 
a slave to its animosity or its affection, either of 
which is sufificient to lead it astray from its duty and 
its interest. Antipathy in' one nation against an- 
other, disposes each more readily to offer insult and 
injury, to lay hold of slight causes of umbrage, and 
to be haughty and intractable, when accidental or 
trifling occasions of dispute occur. 

Hence frequent collisions, obstinate, envenomed, 
and bloody contests. The nation, prompted by 
ill-will and resentment, sometimes impels to war 
the government, contrary to the best calculations 
of policy. The government sometimes participates 
in the national propensity, and adopts through 
passion what reason would reject; at other times, 
it makes the animosity of the nation subservient 
to projects of hostility mstigated by pride, ambition, 



78 BEST AMERICAN ORATIONS 

and other sinister and pernicious motives. The 
peace often, and sometimes, perhaps, the liberty of 
nations, has been the victim. 

So, Ukewise, a passionate attachment of one nation 
for another produces a variety of evils. Sympathy 
for the favorite nation facilitating the illusion of 
an imaginary common interest in cases where no 
real common interest exists, and infusing into one 
the enmities of the other, betrays the former into 
a participation in the quarrels and wars of the lat- 
ter, without adequate inducement or justification. 
It leads also to concessions to the favorite nation 
of privileges denied to others, which is apt doubly 
to injure the nation making the concessions; by 
unnecessarily parting with what ought to have been 
retained; and by exciting jealousy, ill-will, and a 
disposition to retaliate, in the parties from whom 
equal privileges are withheld; and it gives to am- 
bitious, corrupted, or deluded citizens (who devote 
themselves to the favorite nation) facility to betray, 
or sacrifice the interests of their own country, with- 
out odium, sometimes even with popularity; gilding, 
with the appearances of a virtuous sense of obliga- 
tion, a commendable deference for public opinion, 
or laudable zeal for public good, the base or foolish 
compliances of ambition, corruption, or infatuation. 

As avenues to foreign influence, in innumerable 
ways, such attachments are particularly alarming 
to the truly enlightened and independent patriot. 



GEORGE WASHINGTON 



79 



How many opportunities do they afford to tamper 
with domestic factions; to practice the arts of se- 
duction; to mislead pubKc opinion; to influence or 
awe the pubhc councils! Such an attachment of a 
small or weak nation, toward a great and powerful 
one, dooms the former to be the sateUite of the latter. 

Against the insidious wiles of foreign influence (I 
conjure you to believe me, fellow-citizens), the jeal- 
ousy of a free people ought to be constantly awake; 
since history and experience prove, that foreign in- 
fluence is one of the most baneful foes of republican 
government. But that jealousy, to be useful, must 
be impartial; else it becomes the instrument of the 
very influence to be avoided, instead of a defense 
against it. Excessive partiality for one foreign 
nation, and excessive dislike of another, cause those 
whom they actuate, to see danger only on one side; 
and serve to veil and even second the arts of in- 
fluence on the other. Real patriots, who may resist 
the intrigues of the favorite, are liable to become sus- 
pected and odious; while its tools and dupes usurp 
the applause and confidence of the people, to sur- 
render their interests. 

The great rule of conduct for us, in regard to 
foreign nations is, in extending our commercial re- 
lations, to have with them as little political connec- 
tion as possible. So far as we have already form.ed 
engagements, let them be fulfilled with perfect good 
faith. Here let us stop. 



So BEST AMERICAN ORATIONS 

Europe has a set of primary interests, which to 
us have none, or a very remote relation. Hence 
she must be engaged in frequent controversies, 
the causes of which are essentially foreign to our 
concerns. Hence, therefore, it must be unwise 
in us to impUcate ourselves, by artificial ties, in the 
ordinary vicissitudes of her politics, or the ordinary 
combinations and collisions of her friendships and 
enmities. 

Our detached and distant situation invites and 
enables us to pursue a different course. If we remain 
one people, under an efficient government, the period 
is not far off when we may defy material injury 
from external annoyance; when we may take such 
an attitude as will cause the neutraUty we may at 
any time resolve upon, to be scrupulously respected; 
when belligerent nations, under the impossibility 
of making acquisitions upon us, will not lightly 
hazard the giving us provocation; when we may 
choose peace or war, as our interest, guided by 
justice, shall counsel. 

Why forego the advantages of so pecuUar a situa- 
tion? Why quit our own, to stand upon foreign 
ground? Why, by interweaving our destiny with 
that of any part of Europe, entangle our peace and 
prosperity in the toils of European ambition, rival - 
ship, interest, humor, or caprice? 

'Tis our true policy to steer clear of permanent 
alliances with any portion of the foreign world; so 



GEORGE WASHINGTON 8l 

far, I mean, as we are now at liberty to do it; for 
let me not be understood as capable of patroniz- 
ing infidelity to existing engagements. I hold the 
maxim no less applicable to public than to private 
affairs, that honesty is always the best policy. I 
repeat it, therefore, let those engagements be ob- 
served in their genuine sense. But, in my opinion, it 
is unnecessary, and would be unwdse, to extend them. 

Taking care always to keep ourselves, by suitable 
establishments, in a respectable defensive posture, 
we may safely trust to temporary alliances for ex- 
traordinary emergencies. 

Harmony, and a Hberal intercourse with all nations, 
are recommended by policy, humanity, and interest. 
But even our commercial policy should hold an equal 
and impartial hand; neither seeking nor granting 
exclusive favors or preferences; consulting the nat- 
ural course of things; diffusing and diversifying, 
by gentle means, the streams of commerce, but forc- 
ing nothing; estabUshing, with powers so disposed, 
in order to give trade a stable course, to define the 
rights of our merchants, and to enable the govern- 
ment to support them, conventional rules of inter- 
course, the best that present circumstances and mu- 
tual opinion will permit, but temporary, and liable 
to be, from time to time, abandoned or varied, as 
experience and circumstances shall dictate; con- 
stantly keeping in view% that it is folly in one nation 
to look for disinterested favors from another; that 



82 BEST AMERICAN ORATIONS 

it must pay, with a portion of its independence, for 
whatever it may accept under that character; that, 
by such acceptance, it may place itself in the con- 
dition of having given equivalents for nominal favors, 
and yet of being reproached with ingratitude for 
not giving more. There can be no greater error 
than to expect or calculate upon real favors from 
nation to nation. It is an illusion, which experience 
must cure, which a just pride ought to discard. 

In offering to you, my countrymen, these counsels 
of an old and affectionate friend, I dare not hope 
they will make the strong and lasting impression I 
could wish; that they will control the usual current 
of the passions, or prevent our nation from running 
the course which has hitherto marked the destiny 
of nations! But, if I may even flatter myself, that 
they be productive of some partial benefit, some 
occasional good; that they may now and then recur 
to moderate the fury of party spirit; to warn 
against the mischiefs of foreign intrigues; to 
guard against the impostures of pretended pa- 
triotism; this hope will be a full recompense for 
the- solicitude for your welfare, by which they 
have been dictated. 

How far, in the discharge of my official duties, I 
have been guided by the principles which have 
been delineated, the public records and other evi- 
dences of my conduct must witness to you and to the 
world. To myself the assurance of my own con- 



GEORGE WASHINGTON 83 

science is, that I have at least believed myself to be 
guided by them. 

In relation to the still subsisting war in Europe, 
my proclamation of April 22, 1793, is the index to 
my plan. Sanctioned by your approving voice, 
and by that of your representatives in both Houses 
of Congress, the spirit of that measure has continually 
governed me, uninfluenced by any attempts to deter 
or divert me from it. 

After deliberate examination, with the aid of the 
best lights I could obtain, I was well satisfied that our 
country, under all the circumstances of the case, had 
a right to take, and was bound in duty and interest 
to take, a neutral position. Having taken it, I deter- 
mined, as far as should depend upon me, to maintain 
it with moderation, perseverance, and firmness. 

The considerations which respect the right to hold 
this conduct, it is not necessary, on this occasion, to 
detail. I will only observe, that, according to my 
understanding of the matter, that right, so far from 
being denied by any of the belligerent powers, has 
been virtually admitted by all. 

The duty of holding a neutral conduct may be 
inferred, without anything more, from the obligation 
which justice and humanity impose on every nation, in 
cases in which it is free to act, to maintain inviolate the 
relations of peace and amity towards other nations. 

The inducements of interest for observing that con- 
duct will best be referred to your own reflection and 



84 BEST AMERICAN ORATIONS 

experience. With me, a predominant motive has 
been to endeavor to gain time to our country to 
settle and mature its yet recent institutions, and to 
progress, without interruption, to that degree of 
strength and consistency which is necessary to give it, 
humanly speaking, the command of its own fortunes. 

Though, in reviewing the incidents of my adminis- 
tration, I am unconscious of intentional error, I am, 
nevertheless, too sensible of my defects, not to think 
it probable that I may have committed many errors. 
Whatever they may be, I fervently beseech the Al- 
mighty to avert or mitigate the evils to which they 
may tend. I shall also carry with me the hope that 
my country will never cease to view them with indul- 
gence, and that after forty-five years of my life dedi- 
cated to its service, with an upright zeal, the faults 
of incompetent abilities will be consigned to oblivion, 
as myself must soon be to the mansions of rest. 

Relying on its kindness in this, as in other things, 
and actuated by that fervent love towards it, which is 
so natural to a man who views in it the native soil of 
himself and his progenitors for several generations, 
I anticipate, with pleasing expectations, that retreat 
in which I promise myself to realize, without alloy, 
the sweet enjoyment of partaking, in the midst of my 
fellow-citizens, the benign influence of good laws 
under a free government — the ever favorite object 
of my heart, and the happy reward, as I trust, of our 
mutual cares, labors, and dangers. 



JOHN ADAMS 
1735-1826 



Like many other notable men, John Adams, after his 
Harvard graduation at twenty, began life as a school-teacher 
and then studied law. He came into public notice in 1765, first 
in connection with the closing of the courts on account of the 
Stamp Act, and then through some published essays on canon 
and feudal law. He was a hard-working, prominent lawyer 
in Boston when in 1774 he was elected to the Continental 
Congress, and did eminent work there. He went to Europe 
in 1778 as Commissioner, with Franklin and Lee, to negotiate 
treaties with foreign powers, and, with an interval at home in 
the Massachusetts Constitutional Convention, he returned as 
Minister Plenipotentiary for negotiating a treaty of peace with 
Great Britain. Franklin, Jay, Lawrence, and Jefferson 
were added later, and the treaty of 1783 was the result. 

Then Mr. Adams was Vice-President under Washington for 
eight years (i 788-1 796) and President the next term. He was 
offered the governorship of Massachusetts on retiring from the 
presidency, but declined it, and after presiding over the con- 
vention for revising the State constitution he remained quietly 
at home until his death in 1826, at the great age of ninety-one 
years. 

All these public stations were the continuing recognition of. 
his great abilities and unremitting devotion to public duty. He 
was a genuine patriot, of indomitable courage and tremendous 
energy. As a writer, he was learned, but compact, terse, and 
logical ; as an orator, daring and ardent, but a close, persuasive 
reasoner. His greatest fault was his intense conviction of his 
own correctness in any matter to be decided. Yet, though 
disagreeable to others, this was doubtless one element of many 
achievements. A lovable side of his nature appeared in the 
series of letters to his wife before and during the Revolution, 
published after his death, which, with his Diary and his political 
pamphlets, form an invaluable and intimate record of those 
trying times, so large a part of which he was. Here is given 
his Presidential Inaugural Address, March 4, 1797. 

86 



INAUGURAL ADDRESS 

When it was first perceived, in early times, that 
no middle course for America remained, between 
unlimited submission to a foreign legislature and a 
total independence of its claims, men of reflection 
were less apprehensive of danger from the formidable 
power of fleets and armies they must determine to re- 
sist, than from those contests and dissensions which 
would certainly arise concerning the forms of govern- 
ment to be instituted over the whole, and over the 
parts, of this extensive country. Relying, however, 
on the purity of their intentions, the justice of their 
cause, and the integrity and intelligence of the people, 
under an overruling Providence, which had so signally 
protected this country from the first, the representa- 
tives of this nation, then consisting of little more than 
half its present numbers, not only broke to pieces the 
chains which were forging, and the rod of iron that 
was lifted up, but frankly cut asunder the ties which 
had bound them, and launched into an ocean of 
uncertainty. 

The zeal and ardor of the people during the Revolu- 
tionary War, supplying the place of government, 
commanded a degree of order, sufficient, at least, for 
87 



88 BEST AMERICAN ORATIONS 

the temporary preservation of society. The Confed- 
eration, which was early felt to be necessary, was pre- 
pared from the models of the Batavian and Helvetic 
confederacies, the only examples which remain, with 
any detail and precision, in history, and certainly 
the only ones which the people at large had ever con- 
sidered. But, reflecting on the striking difference, in 
so many particulars, between this country and those, 
where a courier may go from the seat of government 
to the frontier in a single day, it was then certainly 
foreseen by some, who assisted in Congress at the 
formation of it, that it could not be durable. 

Negligence of its regulations, inattention to its 
recommendations, if not disobedience to its authority, 
not only in individuals, but in States, soon appeared 
with their melancholy consequences : universal lan- 
guor, jealousies, rivalries of States, decline of navi- 
gation and commerce, discouragement of necessary 
manufactures, universal fall in the value of lands and 
their produce, contempt of public and private faith, 
loss of consideration and credit with foreign nations; 
and, at length, discontents, animosities, combina- 
tions, partial conventions, and insurrection, threaten- 
ing some great national calamity. 

In this dangerous crisis, the people of America were 
not abandoned by their usual good sense, presence 
of mind, resolution, or integrity. Measures were 
pursued to concert a plan to form a more perfect 
union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, 



JOHN ADAMS 89 

provide for the common defense, promote the gen- 
eral welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty. The 
public disquisitions, discussions, and deliberations 
issued in the present happy constitution of govern- 
ment. 

Employed in the service of my country abroad 
during the whole course of these transactions, I first 
saw the Constitution of the United States in a foreign 
country. Irritated by no literary altercation, ani- 
mated by no public debate, heated by no party ani- 
mosity, I read it with great satisfaction, as the result 
of good heads, prompted by good hearts; as an 
experiment better adapted to the genius, character, 
situation, and relations of this nation and country 
than any which had ever been proposed or suggested. 
In its general principles and great outlines, it was con- 
formable to such a system of government as I had 
ever most esteemed; and in some States, my own 
native State in particular, had contributed to estab- 
lish. Claiming a right of suffrage in common with 
my fellow-citizens in the adoption or rejection of a 
constitution, which was to rule me and my posterity, 
as well as them and theirs, I did not hesitate to express 
my approbation of it on all occasions, in public and in 
private. It was not then nor has been since any 
objection to it, in my mind, that the Executive and 
Senate were not more permanent. Nor have I 
entertained a thought of promoting any alteration in 
it, but siich as the people themselves, in the course of 



go BEST AMERICAN ORATIONS 

their experience, should see and feel to be necessary 
or expedient, and by their representatives in Congress 
and the State Legislatures, according to the Constitu- 
tion itself, adopt and ordain. 

Returning to the bosom of my country, after a 
painful separation from it for ten years, I had the 
honor to be elected to a station under the new order 
of things; and I have repeatedly laid myself under 
the most serious obligations to support the Constitu- 
tion. The operation of it has equaled the most 
sanguine expectations of its friends; and from an 
habitual attention to it, satisfaction in its administra- 
tion, and delight in its effects upon the peace, order, 
prosperity, and happiness of the nation, I have 
acquired an habitual attachment to it, and veneration 
for it. 

What other form of government, indeed, can so 
well deserve our esteem and love ? 

There may be little solidity in an ancient idea that 
congregations of men into cities and nations are the 
most pleasing objects in the sight of superior intelli- 
gences; but this is very certain, that to a benevolent 
human mind there can be no spectacle presented by 
any nation more pleasing, more noble, majestic, or 
august, than an assembly like that which has so often 
'been seen in this and the other chamber of Congress 
— of a government in which the executive authority, 
as well as that of all the branches of the legislature, 
are exercised by citizens, selected at regular periods 



JOHN ADAMS 91 . 

by their neighbors, to make and execute laws for 
the general good. Can anything essential, anything 
more than mere ornament an4 decoration, be added 
to this by robes or diamonds? Can authority be 
more amiable or respectable, when it descends from 
accidents or institutions established in remote an- 
tiquity, than when it springs fresh from the hearts 
and judgments of an honest and enUghtened people ? 
For it is the people only that are represented; it is 
their power and majesty that is reflected, and only 
for their good, in every legitimate government, 
under whatever form it may appear. The existence 
of such a government as ours for any length of time, 
is a full proof of a general dissemination of knowl- 
edge and virtue throughout the whole body of the 
people. And what object of consideration, more 
pleasing than this, can be presented to the human 
mind ? If national pride is ever justifiable or excus- 
able, it is when it springs, not from power or 
riches, grandeur or glory, but from conviction of 
national innocence, information, and benevolence. 
In the midst of these pleasing ideas, we should be 
unfaithful to ourselves if we should ever lose sight 
of the danger to our liberties — if anything partial 
or extraneous should infect the purity of our free, 
fair, ^drtuous, and independent elections. If an 
election is to be determined by a majority of a single 
vote, that can be procured by a party through arti- 
fice or corruption, the government may be the choice 



9^ BEST AMERICAN ORATIONS 

of a party, for its own ends, not of the nation for 
the national good. If that solitary suffrage can be 
obtained by foreign nations, by flattery or menaces, 
by fraud or violence, by terror, intrigue, or venality, 
the government may not be the choice of the Amer- 
ican people, but of foreign nations. It may be for- 
eign nations who govern us, and not we, the people, 
who govern ourselves; and candid men will acknowl- 
edge that, in such cases, choice would have little 
advantage to boast of over lot or chance. 

Such is the amiable and interesting system of gov- 
ernment (and such are some of the abuses to which 
it may be exposed) which the people of America have 
exhibited to the admiration and anxiety of the wise 
and virtuous of all nations for eight years, under the 
administration of a citizen, who, by a long course of 
great actions, regulated by prudence, justice, tem- 
perance, and fortitude, conducting a people inspired 
with the same virtues, and animated with the same 
ardent patriotism and love of liberty, to indepen- 
dence and peace, to increasing wealth and unexam- 
pled prosperity, has merited the gratitude of his 
fellow-citizens, commanded the highest praises of 
foreign nations, and secured immortal glory with 
posterity. 

In that retirement, which is his voluntary choice, 
may he long hve to enjoy the delicious recollection 
of his services — the gratitude of mankind; the 
happy fruits of them to himself and the world, which 



JOHN ADAMS 93 

are daily increasing, and that splendid prospect of 
the future fortunes of his country, which is opening 
from year to year. His name may be still a ram- 
part, and the knowledge that he Hves a bulwark, 
against all open or secret enemies of his country's 
peace. 

This example has been recommended to the imita- 
tion of his successors, by both Houses of Congress, 
and by the voice of the legislatures and the people, 
throughout the nation. 

On this subject it might become me better to be 
silent, or to speak with difhdence; but as something 
may be expected, the occasion, I hope, will be ad- 
mitted as an apology, if I venture to say, that if a 
preference, upon principle, of a free republican gov- 
ernment, formed upon long and serious reflection, 
after a diligent and impartial inquiry after truth; 
if an attachment to the Constitution of the United 
States, and a conscientious determination to sup- 
port it, until it shall be altered by the judgments 
and wishes of the people, expressed in the mode pre- 
scribed in it; if a respectful attention to the consti- 
tutions of the individual States, and a constant 
caution and delicacy towards the State governments; 
if an equal and impartial regard to the rights, inter- 
ests, honor, and happiness of all the States in the 
Union without preference or regard to a northern or 
southern, eastern or western position, their various 
political opinions on essential points, or their personal 



94 



BEST AMERICAN ORATIONS 



attachments; if a love of virtuous men, of all parties 
and denominations; if a love of science and letters, 
and a wish to patronize every rational affort to 
encourage schools, colleges, universities, academies, 
and every institution for propagating knowledge, 
virtue, and religion among all classes of the people, 
not only for their benign influence on the happiness 
of life, in all its stages and classes, and of society in 
all its forms, but as the only means of preserving our 
Constitution from its natural enemies, the spirit of 
sophistry, the spirit of party, the spirit of intrigue, 
profligacy, and corruption, and the pestilence of 
foreign influence, which is the angel of destruction 
to elective governments; if a love of equal laws, of 
justice and humanity in the interior administration; 
if an inclination to improve agriculture, commerce, 
and manufactures for necessity, convenience, and 
defense; if a spirit of equity and humanity towards 
the aboriginal nations of America, and a disposition 
to ameUorate their condition, by inclining them to 
be more friendly to us, and our citizens to be more 
friendly to them; if an inflexible determination to 
maintain peace and inviolable faith with all nations, 
and that system of neutrality and impartiality 
among the belligerent powers of Europe which has 
been adopted by the government, and so solemnly 
sanctioned by both Houses of Congress, and ap- 
plauded by the legislatures of the States and the 
public opinion, until it shall be otherwise ordained 



JOHN ADAMS 95 

by Congress; if a personal esteem for the French 
nation, formed in a residence of seven years chiefly 
among them, and a sincere desire to preserve the 
friendship, which has been so much for the honor 
and interest of both nations; if, while the conscious 
honor and integrity of the people of America, and 
the internal sentiment of their own power and ener- 
gies must be preserved, an earnest endeavor to in- 
vestigate every just cause, and remove every colorable 
pretense, of complaint; if an intention to pursue, 
by amicable negotiation, a reparation for the injuries 
that have been committed on the commerce of our 
fellow-citizens, by whatever nation; and if success 
cannot be obtained, to lay the facts before the legis- 
lature, that they may consider what further measures 
the honor and interest of the government and its 
constituents demand; if a resolution to do justice, 
as far as may depend upon me, at all times and to all 
nations, and maintain peace, friendship, and benevo- 
lence with all the world; if an unshaken confidence 
in the honor, spirit, and resources of the American 
people, on which I have so often hazarded my all,, 
and never been deceived; if elevated ideas of the 
high destinies of this country, and of my own duties 
towards it, founded on a knowledge of the moral 
principles and intellectual improvements of the 
people, deeply engraven on my mind in early life, 
and not obscured but exalted by experience and age ; 
and with humble reverence, I feel it my duty to add, 



96 BEST AMERICAN ORATIONS 

if a veneration for the religion of a people, who pro- 
fess and call themselves Christians, and a fixed reso- 
lution to consider a decent respect for Christianity 
among the best recommendations for the public 
service, can enable me, in any degree, to comply 
with your wishes, it shall be my strenuous endeavor 
that this sagacious injunction of the two Houses 
shall not be without effect. 

With this great example before me ; with the 
sense and spirit, the faith and honor, the duty and 
interest of the same American people, pledged to 
support the Constitution of the United States, I en- 
tertain no doubt of its continuance in all its energy; 
and my mind is prepared, without hesitation, to lay 
myself under the most solemn obligations to support 
it to the utmost of my power. 

And may that Being who is supreme over all, the 
patron of order, the fountain of justice, and the pro- 
tector, in all ages of the world, of virtuous liberty, 
continue his blessing upon this nation and its gov- 
ernments, and give it all possible success and dura- 
tion, consistent with the ends of his providence. 



THOMAS JEFFERSON 

I 743-1826 



"After Washington and Franklin," wrote Lord 
Brougham, "there is no person who fills so eminent a place 
among the great men of America as Jefferson." He was, in- 
deed, a powerful leader of men. Not as an orator, for he rarely 
gave personal utterance to his productions, but as a writer. 
With a penetrating and logical intellect, educated at the William 
and Mary College of Virginia, a profound student of social and 
political developments ancient and modern, Jefferson was sent 
to the House of Burgesses at the age of twenty-six (1769); 
in 1775 was member of the Continental Congress and penned 
the Declaration of Independence — "title-deed of American 
liberties," as Webster called it. He was made Governor of 
Virginia in 1779, and after the establishment of the new Consti- 
tution was Ambassador to France, succeeding Franklin, was 
Washington's Secretary of State, and Vice-President under 
the presidency of John Adams, whom he succeeded as Presi- 
dent, serving two terms. 

Jefferson was as democratic in feeling and opinion as Ham- 
ilton was aristocratic, and the two men frequently clashed, 
although not in enmity. He opposed the new Constitution as 
too centralized, and was the natural head of the Anti-Federalists, 
— the party that was later called Republican, and after that 
Democratic, — the party originally demanding strict construc- 
tion of the Constitution, lest from being federal it should become 
national. His many state papers were singularly lucid and 
strong — witness his First Inaugural Address herein (March 4, 
1801); his "Notes on Virginia," describing the State and its 
resources, with exposition of Republican ideas, was highly 
praised, especially in France ; he was a great promoter of educa- 
tion and founded the University of Virginia, while his opposi- 
tion to negro slavery and his ardent advocacy of religious 
liberty were in advance of his times. He not only was a great 
political leader, but he still is — among those who really cherish 
the principles rather than the mere name of " Jeffersonian 
Democracy." 

98 



FIRST INAUGURAL ADDRESS 

Friends and Fellow-citizens: Called upon to 
undertake the duties of the first executive office of 
our country, I avail myself of the presence of that 
portion of my fellow-citizens which is here assem- 
bled, to express my grateful thanks for the favor 
with which they have been pleased to look toward 
me, to declare a sincere consciousness, that the task 
is above my talents, and that I approach it with 
those anxious and awful presentiments, which the 
greatness of the charge, and the weakness of my 
powers, so justly inspire. A rising nation, spread 
over a wide and fruitful land, traversing all the seas 
with the rich productions of their industry, engaged 
in commerce with nations who feel power and forget 
right, advancing rapidly to destinies beyond the 
reach of mortal eye; when I contemplate these tran- 
scendent objects, and see the honor, the happiness, 
and the hopes of this beloved country committed to 
the issue and the auspices of this day, I shrink from 
the contemplation, and humble myself before the 
magnitude of the undertaking. Utterly, indeed, 
should I despair, did not the presence of many, 
whom I see here, remind me, that, in the other high 
99 



lOO BEST AMERICAN ORATIONS 

authorities provided by our Constitution, I shall find 
resources of wisdom, of virtue, and of zeal, on which 
to rely under all difficulties. To you, then, gentle- 
men, who are charged with the sovereign functions 
of legislation, and to those associated with you, I 
look with encouragement for that guidance and sup- 
port which may enable us to steer with safety the 
vessel in which we are all embarked, amidst the 
conflicting elements of a troubled world. 

During the contest of opinion through which we 
have passed, the animation of discussions and of 
exertions has sometimes worn an aspect which might 
impose on strangers unused to think freely, and to 
speak and to write what they think; but this being 
now decided by the voice of the nation, announced 
according to the rules of the Constitution, all will of 
course arrange themselves under the will of the law, 
and unite in common efforts for the common good. 
All too will bear in mind this sacred principle, that 
though the will of the rnajority is in all cases to pre- 
vail, that will, to be rightful, must be reasonable; 
that the minority possess their equal rights, which 
equal laws must protect, and to violate which would 
be oppression. Let us then, fellow-citizens, unite 
with one heart and one mind, let us restore to social 
intercourse that harmony and affection without 
which liberty and even life itself are but dreary 
things. And let us reflect, that having banished 
from our land that religious intolerance under which. 



THOMAS JEFFERSON lOI 

mankind so long bled and suffered, we have yet 
gained little, if we countenance a political intolerance, 
as despotic, as wicked, and as capable of as bitter 
and bloody persecutions. During the throes and 
convulsions of the ancient w^orld, during the agoniz- 
ing spasms of infuriated man, seeking through blood 
and slaughter his long-lost liberty, it was not won- 
derful that the agitation of the billows should reach 
even this distant and peaceful shore; that this 
should be more felt and feared by some, and less by 
others, and should divide opinions as to measures 
of safety; but every difference of opinion is not a 
difference of principle. We have called by different 
names brethren of the same principle. We are all 
Republicans; we are all Federalists. If there be 
any among us who wish to dissolve this Union, or to 
change its republican form, let them stand undis- 
turbed as monuments of the safety with which error 
of opinion may be tolerated, where reason is left free 
to combat it. I know, indeed, that some honest 
men fear that a republican government cannot be 
strong; that this government is not strong enough. 
But would the honest patriot, in the full tide of 
successful experiment, abandon a government which 
has so far kept us free and firm, on the theoretic and 
visionary fear, that this government, the world's 
best hope, may, by possibility, want energy to pre- 
serve itself? I trust not. I believe this, on the 
contrary, the strongest government on earth. I 



I02 BEST AMERICAN ORATIONS 

believe it the only one where every man, at the call 
of the law, would fly to the standard of the law, and 
would meet invasions of the public order as his own 
personal concern. Sometimes it is said that man 
cannot be trusted with the government of himself. 
Can he then be trusted with the government of 
others? Or, have we found angels in the form of 
kings, to govern him? Let history answer this 
question. 

Let us then, with courage and confidence, pursue 
our own federal and republican principles; our at- 
tachment to union and representative government. 
Kindly separated by nature and a wide ocean from 
the exterminating havoc of one quarter of the globe; 
too high-minded to endure the degradation of the 
others; possessing a chosen country, with room enough 
for our descendants to the thousandth and thousandth 
generation; entertaining a due sense of our equal 
right to the use of our own faculties, to the acquisi- 
tion of our own industry, to honor and confidence 
from our fellow-citizens, resulting not from birth, 
but from our actions and their sense of them; en- 
lightened by a benign religion, professed indeed and 
practiced in various forms, yet all of them inculcat- 
ing honesty, truth, temperance, gratitude, and the 
love of man, acknowledging and adoring an over- 
ruling Providence, which, by all its dispensations, 
proves that it delights in the happiness of man here, 
and his greater happiness hereafter; with all these 



THOMAS JEFFERSON I03 

blessings, what more is necessary to make us a happy 
and prosperous people? Still one thing more, fellow- 
citizens, a wise and frugal government, which shall 
restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave 
them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of 
industry and improvement, and shall not take from 
the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is 
the sum of good government; and this is necessary 
to close the circle of our felicities. 

About to enter, fellow-citizens, ujoon the exer- 
cise of duties which comprehend everything dear 
and valuable to you, it is proper you should under- 
stand what I deem the essential principles of our 
government, and consequently, those which ought 
to shape its administration. I will compress them 
within the narrowest compass they will bear, stating 
the general principle, but not all its Hmitations. 
Equal and exact justice to all men, of whatever state 
or persuasion, religious or poHtical; peace, commerce, 
and honest friendship with all nations, entanghng 
alliances with none; the support of the State gov- 
ernments in all their rights, as the most competent 
administrations for our domestic concerns, and the 
surest bulwarks against anti-repubhcan tendencies; 
the preservation of the general government in its 
whole constitutional vigor, as the sheet-anchor of 
our peace at home and safety abroad; a jealous care 
of the right of election by the people, a mild and 
safe corrective of abuses which are lopped by the 



I04 BEST AMERICAN ORATIONS 

sword of revolution where peaceable remedies are 
unprovided; absolute acquiescence in the decisions 
of the majority, the vital principle of republics, from 
which there is no appeal but to force, the vital 
principle and immediate parent of despotism; a 
well-disciplined militia, our best reUance in peace, 
and for the first moments of war, till regulars may 
relieve them; the supremacy of the civil over the 
military authority; economy in the public expense, 
that labor may be lightly burdened; the honest 
payment of our debts, and sacred preservation of the 
public faith; encouragement of agriculture, and of 
commerce as its handmaid; the difTusion of in- 
formation, and arraignment of all abuses at the 
bar of the public reason; freedom of religion, 
freedom of the press, and freedom of person, under 
the protection of the habeas corpus, and trial 
by juries impartially selected. These principles 
form the bright constellation, which has gone be- 
fore us, and guided our steps through . an age of 
revolution and reformation. The wisdom of our 
sages, and blood of our heroes, have been devoted 
to their attainment; they should be the creed of our 
political faith, the text of civic instruction, the touch- 
stone by which to try the services of those we trust; 
and should we wander from them in moments of 
error or of alarm, let us hasten to retrace our steps, 
and to regain the road which alone leads to peace, 
liberty, and safety. 



THOMAS JEFFERSON I05 

I repair, then, fellow-citizens, to the post you have 
assigned me. With experience enough in subordi- 
nate offices to have seen the difficulties of this, the 
greatest of all, I have learned to expect that it will 
rarely fall to the lot of imperfect man, to retire 
from this station with the reputation and the favor 
which bring him into it. Without pretensions to 
that high confidence you reposed in our first and 
greatest revolutionary character, whose preeminent 
services had entitled him to the first place in his 
country's love, and destined for him the fairest page 
in the volume of faithful history, I ask so much 
confidence only as may give firmness and effect to 
the legal administration of your affairs. I shall 
often go wrong through defect of judgment. When 
right, I shall often be thought wrong by those whose 
positions wdll not command a view of the whole 
ground. I ask your indulgence for my own errors, 
which will never be intentional; and your support 
against the errors of others, who may condemn 
what they would not, if seen in all its parts. The 
approbation impKed by your suffrage, is a great 
consolation to me for the past; and my future solici- 
tude will be, to retain the good opinion of those who 
have bestowed it in advance, to conciliate that of 
others, by doing them all the good in my power, and 
to be instrumental to the happiness and freedom 
of all. 

Relying then on the patronage of your good-will, 



Io6 BEST AMERICAN ORATIONS 

I advance with obedience to the work, ready to 
retire from it whenever you become sensible how 
much better choices it is in your power to make. 
And may that infinite Power which rules the des- 
tinies of the universe, lead our councils to what 
is best, and give them a favorable issue for your 
peace and prosperity. 



JOHN RANDOLPH 

1773-1S33 



Virginia certainly furnished her full share of masterful men 
as leaders of opinion and activity in the early days of the re- 
public. John Randolph of Roanoke was one of them. Of an 
aristocratic family, and a slave-owner, he was imbued, never- 
theless, with earnest ideas as to individual liberty, both civil 
and religious, was not a political partisan of slavery, and freed 
his slaves by will at his death, while throughout his political 
career he was usually in violent opposition to the general govern- 
ment along the lines of State rights. He went to Congress 
in 1799 and in 1801 became chairman of the Committee on 
Ways and Means, — an important post. He was keen of per- 
ception, and, if not highly cultivated, was widely read, so that, 
with a native fluency of language and a keen wit, his legislative 
experience made him a strong debater, — too strong, indeed, for 
his causes or his own interest, since a rash and fiery temper 
and a lack of consideration for others kept him usually in a 
turmoil of misunderstandings. 

Perhaps the most important of his deliverances was the 
speech in Congress, March 5, 1806, opposing a commercial 
rupture wnth Great Britain then proposed, a portion of which is 
here reproduced. It cost him his place in Congress, although 
he was again returned in 1815. He went abroad in 1821 for 
relaxation, returned for a two years' term as United States 
Senator, and in 1830 was sent as Minister to Russia. On a 
reelection he returned to Congress, but died in 1833. 

Randolph was trusted by Virginia, and was valuable in 
Washington, yet his bitter temper deprived both him and his 
country of much of the influence of his better qualities. 



108 



OPPOSING A RUPTURE 
WITH ENGLAND 

I AM not surprised to hear this resolution^ discussed 
by its friends as a war measure. They say, it is 
true, that it is not a war measure ; but they defend 
it on principles which would justify none but war 
measures, and seem pleased with the idea that it 
may prove the forerunner of war. If war is neces- 
sary, if we have reached this point, let us have war. 
But while I have life, I will never consent to these 
incipient war measures, w^hich in their commence- 
ment breathe nothing but peace, though they plunge 
us at last into war. . . . 

It has always appeared to me that there are three 
points to be considered, and maturely considered, 
before we can be prepared to vote for the resolution 
of the gentleman from Pennsylvania: first, Our 
ability to contend with Great Britain for the question 

^ That until equitable and satisfactory arrangements con- 
cerning impressment of seamen and seizures of American 
vessels should be made between the United States and British 
governments, it was expedient that no goods, wares or mer- 
chandise, of the growth, product or manufacture of Great 
Britain, or any of the colonies or dependencies thereof, ought 
to be imported into the United States, until otherwise pro- 
claimed by the President. 

J09 



no BEST AMERICAN ORATIONS 

in dispute; secondly, The policy of such a contest; 
and thirdly, In case both these shall be settled affirm- 
atively, the manner in which we can, with the 
greatest effect, react upon and annoy our adversary. 

WTiat is the question in dispute ? The carrying 
trade. What part of it ? The fair, the honest, 
and the useful trade that is engaged in carrying our 
own productions to foreign markets, and bringing 
back their productions in exchange ? No, Sir; it 
is that carrying trade which covers enemy's property, 
and carries the coffee, the sugar, and other West 
India products, to the mother-country. No, Sir; 
if this great agricultural nation is to be governed by 
Salem and Boston, New^ York and Philadelphia, 
and Baltimore and Norfolk and Charleston, let 
gentlemen come out and say so; and let a committee 
of public safety be appointed from those towns to 
carry on the government. I, for one, wdll not mort- 
gage my property and my liberty to carry on this 
trade. The nation said so seven years ago; I said 
so then, and I say so now. It is not for the honest 
carrying trade of America, but for this mushroom, 
this fungus of war, for a trade which, as soon as the 
nations of Europe are at peace, will no longer exist; 
it is for this that the spirit of avaricious traffic would 
plunge us into war. . . . 

But we are asked, are we willing to bend the neck 
to England; to submit to her outrages? No, Sir; 



JOHN RANDOLPH III 

I answer, that it will be time enough for us to tell 
gentlemen what w^e will do to vindicate the violation 
of our flag on the ocean, when they shall have told 
us what they have done, in resentment of the viola- 
tion of the actual territory of the United States by 
Spain — the true territory of the United States, 
not your new-fangled country over the Mississippi, 
but the good old United States — part of Georgia, 
of the old tliirteen States, where citizens have been 
taken, not from our ships, but from our actual terri- 
tory. When gentlemen have taken the padlock 
from our mouths, I shall be ready to tell them what 
I will do relative to our dispute wdth Britain, on the 
law of nations, on contraband, and such stuff. . . . 
France is at war with England: suppose her power 
on the Continent of Europe no greater than it is on 
the ocean. How would she make her enemy feel 
it? There would be a perfect non-conductor be- 
tween them. So with the United States and Eng- 
land ; she scarcely presents to us a vulnerable point. 
Her commerce is carried on, for the most part, in 
fleets; where in single ships, they are stout and well- 
armed; very different from the state of her trade 
during the American war, w4ien her merchantmen 
became the prey of paltry privateers. Great Britain 
has been too long at war with the three most powerful 
maritime nations of Europe, not to have learnt how 
to protect her trade. She can afford convoy to it 
all ; she has eight hundred ships in commission ; 



112 BEST AMERICAN ORATIONS 

the navies of her enemies are annihilated. Thus, 
this war has presented the new and curious pohtical 
spectacle of a regular annual increase (and to an 
immense amount) of her imports and exports, 
and tonnage and revenue, and all the insignia of 
accumulating wealth, whilst in every former war, 
without exception, these have suffered a greater or 
less diminution. And wherefore? Because she 
has driven France, Spain, and Holland, from the 
ocean. Their marine is no more. I verily believe 
that ten EngUsh ships of the line would not decUne 
a meeting with the combined fleets of those nations. 
But this is not my only objection to entering upon 
this naval warfare. I am averse to a naval war with 
any nation whatever. I was opposed to the naval 
war of the last administration, and I am as ready to 
oppose a naval war of the present administration, 
should they meditate such a measure. What ! shall 
this great mammoth of the American forest leave his 
native element, and plunge into the water in a mad 
contest with the shark? Let him beware that his 
proboscis is not bitten off in the engagement. Let 
him stay on shore, and not be excited by the mussels 
and periwinkles on the strand, or political bears, in 
a boat to venture on the perils of the deep. Gentle- 
men say, will you not protect your violated rights? 
and I say, why take to water, where you can neither 
fight nor swim ? Look at France ; see her vessels 
stealing from port to port, on her own coast; and 



JOHN RANDOLPH II3 

remember that she is the first military power of the 
earth, and as a naval people, second only to England. 
Take away the British navy, and France to-morrow 
is the tyrant of the ocean. 

This brings me to the second point. How far is 
it politic in the United States to throw their weight 
into the scale of France at this moment ? — from 
whatever motive to aid the views of her gigantic 
ambition — to make her mistress of the sea and land 
— to jeopardize the liberties of mankind ? Sir, you 
may help to crush Great Britain — you may assist 
in breaking down her naval dominion, but you can- 
not succeed to it. The iron scepter of the ocean will 
pass into his hands who wears the iron crown of the 
land. You may then expect a new code of maritime 
law. Where will you look for redress? I can tell 
the gentleman from Massachusetts, that there is 
nothing in his rule of three that will save us, even 
although he should outdo himself, and exceed the 
financial ingenuity which he so memorably displayed 
on a recent occasion. No, Sir ; let the battle of Ac- 
tium be once fought, and the whole line of sea-coast 
will be at the mercy of the conqueror. The Atlantic, 
deep and wide as it is, will prove just as good a barrier 
against his ambition, if directed against you, as the 
Mediterranean to the power of the Caesars. Do I 
mean, when I say so, to crouch to the invader ? No, 
I will meet him at the water's edge, and fight every 
inch of ground from thence to the mountains, from 



114 BEST AMERICAxM ORATIONS 

the mountains to the Mississippi. But after tamely 
submitting to an outrage on your domicile, will you 
bully and look big at an insult on your flag three 
thousand miles off? 

But, Sir, I have yet a more cogent reason against 
going to war for the honor of the flag in the narrow 
seas, or any other maritime punctilio. It springs 
from my attachment to the principles of the Govern- 
ment under which I live. I declare, in the face of 
day, that this Government was not instituted for 
the purposes of offensive war. No ; it was framed, 
to use its own language, for the common defense and 
the general welfare, which are inconsistent with 
offensive war. I call that offensive war, which goes 
out of our jurisdiction and limits, for the attainment 
or protection of objects, not within those limits, and 
that jurisdiction. As, in 1798, I was opposed to 
this species of warfare, because I believed it would 
raze the Constitution to the very foundation; so, 
in 1806, am I opposed to it, and on the same grounds. 

For my part, I never will go to war but in self- 
defense. I have no desire for conquests — no am- 
bition to possess Nova Scotia — I hold the liberties 
of this people at a higher rate. Much more am I 
indisposed to war, when among the first means for 
carrying it on, I see gentlemen propose the confisca- 
tion of debts due by Government to individuals. 
Does a bona fide creditor know who holds his paper? 
Dare any honest man ask himself the question? 



JOHN RANDOLPH II5 

'Tis hard to say whether such principles are more 
detestably dishonest than they are weak and foolish. 
What, Sir; will you go about with proposals for open- 
ing a loan in one hand, and a sponge for the national 
debt in the other ? If, on a late occasion, you could 
not borrow at a less rate of interest than eight per 
cent when the Government avowed that they would 
pay to the last shilling of the public ability, at what 
price do you expect to raise money with an avowal 
of these nefarious opinions ? • — God help you ! if 
these are your ways and means for carrying on 
war. . . . 

But the gentleman has told you that we ought to 
go to war, if for nothing else, for the fur trade. Now, 
Sir, the people on whose support he seems to calcu- 
late, follow, let me tell him, a better business; and 
let me add, that whilst men are happy at home reap- 
ing their own fields, the fruit of their labor and in- 
dustry, there is Httle danger of their being induced 
to go sixteen or seventeen hundred miles in pursuit 
of beavers, raccoons or opossums — much less of 
going to war for the privilege. They are better 
employed where they are. This trade. Sir, may be 
important to Britain, to nations who have exhausted 
every resource of industry at home — bowed down 
by taxation and wretchedness. Let thema, in God's 
name, if they please, follow the fur trade. They 
may, for me, catch every beaver in North America. 
Yes, Sir, our people have a better occupation — 



Il6 BEST AMERICAN ORATIONS 

a safe, profitable, honorable employment. Whilst 
they should be engaged in distant regions in hunting 
the beaver, they dread, lest those whose natural 
prey they are, should begin to hunt them — should 
pillage their property, and assassinate their consti- 
tution. Instead of these wild schemes, pay off your 
public debt, instead of prating about its confiscation. 
Do not, I beseech you, expose at once your knavery 
and your folly. You have more lands than you know 
what to do with; you have lately paid fifteen 
millions for yet more. Go and work them, and 
cease to alarm the people w^th the cry of wolf, until 
they become deaf to your voice, or at least laugh at 
you. . . . 

I am prepared, Sir, to be represented as willing to 
surrender important rights of this nation to a for- 
eign government. I have been told that this senti- 
ment is already whispered in the dark, by time- 
servers and sycophants; but if your clerk dared to 
print them, I would appeal to your journals! — I 
would call for the reading of them, but that I know 
they are not for profane eyes to look upon. I confess 
that I am more ready to surrender to a naval power 
a square league of ocean than to a territorial one a 
square inch of land, within our limits ; and I am ready 
to meet the friends of the resolution on this ground, 
at any time. Let them take off the injunction of 
secrecy. They dare not. They are ashamed and 
afraid to do it. They may give winks and nods, and 



JOHN RANDOLPH 1 17 

pretend to be wise, but they dare not come out, and 
tell the nation what they have done. Gentlemen 
may take notes, if they please; but I will never, from 
any motives short of self-defense, enter upon war. 
I will never be instrumental to the ambitious schemes 
of Bonaparte, nor put into his hands what will 
enable him to wield the world, — and on the very 
principle that I wished success to the French arms 
in 1793. And wherefbre ? Because the case is 
changed. Great Britain can never again see the 
year 1760. Her Continental influence is gone for- 
ever. Let who will be uppermost on the Continent 
of Europe, she must find more than a counterpoise 
for her strength. Her race is run. She can only be 
formidable as a maritime power; and even as such, 
perhaps not long. Are you going to justify the acts 
of the last administration for which they have been 
deprived of the government, at our instance ? Are 
you going back to the ground of 1798- 1799 ? 

I ask of any man who now^ advocates a rupture with 
England, to assign a single reason for his opinion, 
that w^ould not have justified a French war in 1798. 
If injury and insult abroad w^ould have justified it, 
we had them in abundance then. But what did the 
Republicans say at that day? That under the cover 
of a war with France, the executive would be armed 
with a patronage and power which might enable it 
to master our liberties. They deprecated foreign 
war and navies, and standing armies, and loans, and 



Il8 BEST AMERICAN ORATIONS 

taxes. The delirium passed away — the good sense 
of the people triumphed — and our differences were 
accommodated without a war. And what is there 
in the situation of England that invites to war with 
her? 'Tis true she does not deal so largely in per- 
fectability, but she supplies you with a much more 
useful commodity — with coarse woolens. With 
less professions, indeed, she occupies the place of 
France in 1793. She is the sole bulwark of the 
human race against universal dominion. No thanks 
to her for it! In protecting her own existence, she 
insures theirs. I care not who stands in this situa- 
tion, whether England or Bonaparte — I practice 
the doctrines now, that I professed in 1798. Gen- 
tlemen may hunt up the journals if they please — 
I voted against all such projects under the admin- 
istration of John Adams, and I will continue to do 
so under that of Thomas Jefferson. . . . 

Is it to be inferred from all this, that I would 
yield to Great Britain ? No ; I would act towards 
her now, as I was disposed to do towards France in 
1 798-1 799 — treat with her ; and for the same reason, 
on the same principles. Do I say treat with her ? 
At this moment you have a negotiation pending with 
her government. With her you have not tried 
negotiation, and failed, totally failed, as you have 
done with Spain, or rather France. And wherefore, 
under such circumstances, this hostile spirit to the 
one, and this (I won't say w^hat), to the other ? . . . 



JOHN RANDOLPH II9 

But you are told England will not make war — 
she has her hands full. Holland calculated in the 
same way, in 1781. How did it turn out ? You 
stand now in the place of Holland, then — without 
her navy, unaided by the preponderating fleets of 
France and Spain — to say nothing of the Baltic 
powers. Do you want to take up the cudgels w^here 
these great maritime powers have been forced to 
drop them? to meet Great Britain on the ocean, 
and drive her off its face? If you are so far gone 
as this, every capital measure of your policy has 
hitherto been wrong. You should have nurtured 
the old, and devised new systems of taxation — 
have cherished your navy. Begin this business when 
you may, land-taxes, stamp-acts, window-taxes, 
hearth-money, excise, in all its modifications of vexa- 
tion and oppression, must precede, or follow after. 

But, Sir, since French is the fashion of the day, I 
may be asked for my projet. I can readily tell gen- 
tlemen what I will not do. I will not propitiate any 
foreign nation with money. I will not launch into a 
naval war with Great Britain, although I am ready 
to meet her at the Cowpens, or Bunker's Hill. And 
for this plain reason. We are a great land animal, 
and our business is on shore. I will send her no 
money, Sir, on any pretext whatsoever, much less 
on pretense of buying Labrador, or Botany Bay, 
when my real object was to secure hmits which she 
formally acknowledged at the peace of 1783. I go 



I20 BEST AMERICAN ORATIONS 

further: I would (if anything) have laid an embargo. 
This would have got our own property home, and 
our adversary's into our power. If there is any 
wisdom left among us, the first step towards hostility 
will always be an embargo. In six months all your 
mercantile megrims would vanish. As to us, al- 
though it would cut deep, w^e can stand it. Without 
such a precaution, go to war when you will, you go 
to the wall. As to debts, strike the balance to-mor- 
row, and England is, I beheve, in our debt. . . . 

Gentlemen may say what they please. They may 
put an insignificant individual to the ban of the 
republic; I shall not alter my course. I blush with 
indignation at the misrepresentations which have 
gone forth in the public prints of our proceedings, 
public and private. Are the people of the United 
States, the real sovereigns of the country, unworthy 
of knowing what, there is too much reason to 
believe, has been communicated to the privileged 
spies of foreign governments ? . . . Let the nation 
know what they have to depend upon. Be true to 
them, and, trust me, they will prove true to them- 
selves and to you. The people are honest; now at 
home at their plows, not dreaming of what you 
are about. But the spirit of inquiry, that has too 
long slept, will be, must be, awakened. Let them 
begin to think; not to say Such things are proper 
because they have been done — but What has been 
done ? and wherefore ? — and all will be right. 



EDWARD EVERETT 

I 794-1865 



A MAN of fine rather than strong qualities, Everett was an 
excellent type of the intellectual culture that in New England, 
and especially Massachusetts, succeeded the vigorous Revolu- 
tionary energy of the Puritan element. He was an accomplished 
gentleman, scholar, and rhetorican. His early ministrations in 
a Boston church were greatly admired ; his Greek professorship 
and later presidency at Harvard were eminently satisfactory; 
his service in the House of Representatives and in the United 
States Senate was both useful and elegant ; his ambassadorship 
to England reflected credit upon his country and greatly in- 
terested many of the foremost British statesmen and men of 
letters; his governorship of Massachusetts was all that it 
should be; as President Fillmore's Secretary of State, in 1852, 
amidst the turmoil of domestic political conflict he serenely 
guided the nation's foreign affairs. In all the official stations 
with which he was honored, he satisfactorily fulfilled his 
duties. 

Everett's prime gift, however, was oratory. It was not 
"the power of speech to move men's blood," but the historic 
research, the admirable grouping and presentation of events 
and their consequences, the felicity of illustration, the harmony 
of language, the music of voice, the grace of pose and gesture, 
that made Everett a favorite orator on all specific " occa- 
sions." His oration on "Washington" he repeated about a 
hundred and fifty times, the pecuniary returns, enlarged by 
payments for periodical writings to $100,000, being given 
towards the purchase of Mount Vernon as a national property. 
His discourse on "The History of Liberty" (at Charlestown, 
Massachusetts, July 4, 1828), here given, is one of his char- 
acteristic deliverances. 

But the difference between his elegancies and the direc 
speech of more practical men is well shown in what he himself 
wrote to President Lincoln the day after they had both made 
addresses at the Gettysburg Dedication: "I should be glad if 
I could flatter myself that I came as near to the central idea of 
the occasion in two hours as you did in two minutes." 



THE HISTORY OF LIBERTY 

The event which we commemorate is all-im- 
portant, not merely in our own annals, but in those 
of the world. The sententious English poet has de- 
clared that ''the proper study of mankind is man," 
and of all inquiries of a temporal nature, the history 
of our fellow-beings is unquestionably among the 
most interesting. But not all the chapters of hu- 
man history are alike important. The annals of our 
race have been filled up with incidents which concern 
not, or at least ought not to concern, the great com- 
pany of mankind. History, as it has often been 
written, is the genealogy of princes, the field-book 
of conquerors; and the fortunes of our fellow-men 
have been treated only so far as they have been 
affected by the influence of the great masters and 
destroyers of our race. Such history is, I will not 
say a worthless study, for it is necessary for us to 
know the dark side as well as the bright side of our 
condition. But it is a melancholy study which fills 
the bosom of the philanthropist and the friend of 
liberty with sorrow. 

But the history of liberty — the history of men 
struggling to be free — the history of men who have 
123 



124 BEST AMERICAN ORATIONS 

acquired and are exercising their freedom — the 
history of those great movements in the world, by 
which Uberty has been estabHshed and perpetuated, 
forms a subject which we cannot contemplate too 
closely. This is the real history of man, of the human 
family, of rational immortal beings. ... 

We hear much at school of the liberty of Greece 
and Rome — a great and complicated subject, 
which this is not the occasion to attempt to dis- 
entangle. True it is that we find, in the annals of 
both these nations, bright examples of public virtue 
— the record of faithful friends of their country — 
of strenuous foes of oppression at home or abroad — 
and admirable precedents of popular strength. 
But we nowhere find in them the account of a popu- 
lous and extensive region, blessed with institutions 
securing the enjoyment and transmission of regu- 
lated liberty. In freedom, as in most other things, 
the ancient nations, while they made surprisingly 
close approaches to the truth, yet, for want of some 
one great and essential principle or instrument, 
they came utterly short of it in practice. They had 
profound and elegant scholars; but, for want of the 
art of printing, they could not send information out 
among the people, where alone it is of great use 
in reference to human happiness. Some of them 
ventured boldly out to sea, and possessed an aptitude 
for foreign commerce; yet, for want of the mariner's 
compass, they could not navigate distant seas, but 



EDWARD EVERETT 



125 



crept for ages along the shores of the Mediterranean. 
In respect to freedom, they estabHshed popular 
governments in single cities; but, for want of the 
representative principle, they could not extend these 
institutions over a large and populous country. 
But as a large and populous country, generally 
speaking, can alone possess strength enough for 
self-defense, this want was fatal. The freest of 
their cities accordingly fell a prey, sooner or later, 
either to a foreign invader or to domestic traitors. 

In this w^ay, Hberty made no firm progress in 
the ancient states. It was a speculation of the 
philosopher, and an experiment of the patriot, but 
not an estabUshed state of society. The patriots 
of Greece and Rome had indeed succeeded in en- 
lightening the public mind on one of the cardinal 
points of freedom — the necessity of an elected 
executive. The name and the office of a king were 
long esteemed not only something to be rejected, 
but something rude and uncivilized, belonging to 
savage nations, ignorant of the rights of man, as 
understood in cultivated states. . . . The [Roman] 
empire began and continued a pure military des- 
potism, ingrafted, by a sort of permanent usurpa- 
tion, on the forms and names of the ancient republic. 
The spirit, indeed, of liberty had long since ceased 
to animate these ancient forms, and when the bar- 
barous tribes of Central Asia and Northern Europe 
burst into the Roman empire, they swept away the 



126 BEST AMERICAN ORATIONS 

poor remnant of these forms, and established upon 
their ruins the system of feudal monarchy from 
which all modern kingdoms are descended. Efforts 
were made in the Middle Ages by the petty republics 
of Italy to regain the political rights which a long 
proscription had wrested from them. But the 
remedy of bloody civil wars between neighboring 
cities was plainly more disastrous than the disease 
of subjection. The struggles of freedom in these 
little states resulted much as they had done in Greece, 
exhibiting brilliant examples of individual character 
and short intervals of public prosperity, but no per- 
manent progress in the organization of liberal 
governments. 

At length a new era seemed to begin. The art of 
printing was invented. The capture of Constanti- 
nople by the Turks drove the learned Greeks of that 
city into Italy, and letters revived. A general 
agitation of public sentiment in various parts of 
Europe ended in the religious reformation. A 
spirit of adventure had been awakened in the mari- 
time nations, projects of remote discovery were 
started, and the signs of the times seemed to augur 
a great pohtical regeneration. But, as if to blast 
this hope in its bud; as if to counterbalance at once 
the operations of these springs of improvements; 
as if to secure the permanence of the arbitrary in- 
stitutions which existed in every part of the Con- 
tinent, at the moment when it was most threatened, 



EDWARD EVERETT 



127 



the last blow at the same time was given to the re- 
maining power of the great barons, the sole check 
on the despotism of the monarch which the feudal 
system provided was removed, and a new institution 
was firmly established in Europe, prompt, efficient, 
and terrible in its operation beyond anything which 
the modern world has seen — I mean the system of 
standing armies; in other words, a military force 
organized and paid to support the king on his throne 
and retain the people in their subjection. . . . 

All hope of liberty then seemed lost; in Europe 
all hope was lost. A disastrous turn has been given 
to the general movement of things; and in the dis- 
closure of the fatal secret of standing armies, the 
future political servitude of man was apparently 
decided. 

But a change is destined to come over the face of 
things, as romantic in its origin as it is wonderful in 
its progress. All is not lost; on the contrary, all 
is saved, at the moment when all seemed involved 
in ruin. . . . The discovery of America had taken 
place under the auspices of the government most 
disposed for maritime adventure, and best enabled 
to extend a helping arm, such as it was, to the enter- 
prise of the great discoverer. But it w^as not from 
the same quarter that the elements of liberty could 
be introduced into the New World. Causes, upon 
which I need not dwell, made it impossible that 
the great political reform should go forth from Spain. 



128 BEST AMERICAN ORATIONS 

For this object, a new train of incidents was preparing 
in another quarter. 

The only real advance which modern Europe had 
made in freedom had been made in England. The 
cause of constitutional liberty in that country was 
persecuted, was subdued, but not annihilated, nor 
trampled out of being. From the choicest of its 
suffering champions were collected the brave band 
of emigrants who first went out on the second, the 
more precious voyage of discovery — the discovery 
of a land where liberty and its consequent blessings 
might be established. 

A late English writer has permitted himself to say 
that the original establishment of the United States, 
and that of the colony of Botany Bay, were modeled 
nearly on the same plan. The meaning of this 
slanderous insinuation is, that the United States 
was settled by deported convicts, as New South 
Wales has been settled by transported felons. . . . 
In one sense, indeed, we might doubt whether the 
allegation were more of a reproach or a compliment. 
During the time that the colonization of America 
was going on most rapidly, some of the best citizens 
of England, if it be any part of good citizenship to 
resist oppression, were immured in her prisons of 
state or lying at the mercy of the law. 

Such were some of the convicts by whom America 
v/as settled — men convicted of fearing God more 
than they feared man; of sacrificing property, ease, 



EDWARD EVERETT 129 

and all the comforts of life, to a sense of duty and 
to the dictates of conscience ; men convicted of pure 
lives, brave hearts, and simple manners. The enter- 
prise was led by Raleigh, the chivalrous convict, 
who unfortunately believed that his royal master 
had the heart of a man, and would not let a sentence 
of death, which had slumbered for sixteen years, 
revive and take effect after so long an interval of 
employment and favor. But nullum tempus occurrit 
regi. The felons who followed next were the heroic 
and long-suffering church of Robinson, at Leyden — 
Carver, Brewster, Bradford, Winslow, and their 
pious associates, convicted of worshiping God 
according to the dictates of their consciences, and 
of giving up all — country, property, and the tombs 
of their fathers — that they might do it unmolested. 
Not content with having driven the Puritans from 
her soil, England next enacted or put in force the 
oppressive laws which colonized Maryland with 
Catholics, and Pennsylvania with Quakers. Nor 
was it long before the American plantations were 
recruited by the Germans, convicted of inhabiting 
the Palatinate, when the merciless armies of Louis 
XIV were turned into that devoted region, and by 
the Huguenots, convicted of holding what they 
deemed the simple truth of Christianity, when it 
pleased the mistress of Louis XIV to be very zealous 
for the Catholic faith. These were followed, in the 
next century, by the Highlanders, convicted of the 



T30 BEST AMERICAN ORATIONS 

enormous crime, under a monarchical government, 
of loyalty to their hereditary prince on the plains 
of CuUoden, and the Irish, convicted of supporting 
the rights of their country against what they deemed 
an oppressive external power. Such are the convicts 
by whom America was settled. 

In this way, a fair representation of whatsoever 
was most valuable in European character — the 
resolute industry of one nation, the inventive skill 
and curious arts of another, the courage, conscience, 
principle, self-denial of all — was winnowed out, 
by the policy of the prevaiUng governments, as a 
precious seed wherewith to plant the American soil. 
By this singular coincidence of events, our country 
was constituted the great asylum of suffering virtue 
and oppressed humanity. . . . Had we been the 
unmixed descendants of any one nation of Europe, 
we should have retained a moral and intellectual 
dependence on that nation, even after the dissolution 
of our political connection had taken place. It was 
sufficient for the great purpose in view that the 
earliest settlements were made by men who had 
fought the battles of liberty in England, and who 
brought with them the rudiments of constitutional 
freedom to a region where no deep-rooted pro- 
scriptions would prevent their development. In- 
stead of marring the symmetry of our social system, 
it is one of the most attractive and beautiful peculiari- 
ties, that, with the prominent qualities of the Anglo- 



EDWARD EVERETT 131 

Saxon character inherited from our English fathers, 
we have an admixture of almost everything that is 
valuable in the character of most of the other states 
of Europe. 

Such was the first preparation for the great polit- 
ical reform, of which America was to be the theater. 
The colonies of England — of a country where the 
supremacy of laws and the constitution is best 
recognized — the North American colonies — were 
protected from the first against the introduction of 
the unmitigated despotism which prevailed in the 
Spanish settlements. . . . 

On the other hand, by what I had almost called an 
accidental circumstance, but one which ought rather 
to be considered as a leading incident in the great 
train of events connected with the estabhshment 
of constitutional freedom in this country, it came 
to pass that nearly all the colonies (founded as they 
were on the charters granted to corporate institutions 
in England, which had for their object the pursuit 
of the branches of industry and trade pertinent to a 
new plantation) adopted a regular representative 
system, by which, as in ordinary civil corporations, 
the affairs of the community are decided by the will 
and the voices of its members, or those authorized by 
them. It was no device of the parent government 
which gave us our colonial assem.blies. It was no 
refinement of philosophical statesmen to which we 
are indebted for our republican institutions of gov- 



132 BEST AMERICAN ORATIONS 

ernment. They grew up, as it were, by accident, 
on the simple foundation I have named. "A House 
of Burgesses," says Hutchinson, "broke out in 
Virginia, in 1620;" and, ''although there was no 
color for it in the charter of Massachusetts, a House 
of Deputies appeared suddenly in 1634." "Lord 
Say," observes the same historian, "tempted the 
principal men of Massachusetts to make themselves 
and their heirs nobles and absolute governors of a 
new colony, but, under this plan, they could find no 
people to follow them." 

At this early period, and in this simple, unpretend- 
ing manner, was introduced to the world that greatest 
discovery in poHtical science, or poHtical practice, a 
representative republican system. "The discovery 
of the system of the representative republic," says 
M. de Chateaubriand, "is one of the greatest political 
events that ever occurred." But it is not one of 
the greatest, it is the very greatest, and, combined 
with another principle, to which I shall presently 
advert, and which is also the invention of the United 
States, it marks an era in human affairs — a discovery 
in the great science of social life, compared with which 
everything else that terminates in the temporal 
interests of man sinks into insignificance. 

Thus, then, was the foundation laid, and thus was 
the preparation commenced, of the world's grand 
political regeneration. . . . But at length this hope, 
never adequately satisfied, began to turn into doubt 



EDWARD EVERETT I33 

and despair. The Colonies had become too impor- 
tant to be overlooked; their government was a pre- 
rogative too important to be left in their own hands; 
and the legislation of the mother-country decidedly 
assumed a form which announced to the patriots 
that the hour at length had come when the chains 
of the great discoverer were to be avenged, the suf- 
ferings of the first settlers to be compensated, and 
the long-deferred hopes of humanity to be fulfilled. 
You need not, friends and fellow-citizens, that I 
should dwell upon the incidents of the last great acts 
in the colonial drama. . . . The Revolution was 
at length accomphshed. The poHtical separation of 
the country from Great Britain was effected, and it 
now remained to organize the liberty which had been 
reaped on bloody fields — to establish, in the place 
of the government whose yoke had been thrown off, 
a government at home, which should fulfill the great 
design of the Revolution and satisfy the demands 
of the friends of liberty at large. What manifold 
perils awaited the step! The danger was great 
that too Uttle or too much would be done. Smart- 
ing under the oppressions of a distant government, 
whose spirit was alien to their feelings, there was 
great danger that the Colonies, in the act of declaring 
themselves sovereign and independent States, would 
push to an extreme the prerogative of their separate 
independence, and refuse to admit any authority 
beyond the Hmits of each particular commonwealth. 



134 BEST AMERICAN ORATIONS 

On the other hand, achieving their independence 
under the banners of the Continental Army, ascrib- 
ing, and justly, a large portion of their success to 
the personal qualities of the beloved Father of his 
Country, there was danger not less imminent, that 
those who perceived the evils of the opposite extreme, 
would be disposed to confer too much strength on one 
general government, and would, perhaps, even fancy 
the necessity of investing the hero of the Revolution, 
in form, with that sovereign power which his personal 
ascendency gave him in the hearts of his country- 
men. Such and so critical was the alternative which 
the organization of the new government presented, 
and on the successful issue of which the entire bene- 
fit of this great movement in human affairs was to 
depend. . . . Such was the task that devolved 
on the statesmen who convened at Philadelphia on 
May 2, 1787, in the assembly of which General 
Washington was elected president, and over whose 
debates your townsman, Mr. Gorham, presided 
for two or three months as chairman of the committee 
of the whole, during the discussion of the plan of the 
Federal Constitution. . . . 

The members of that convention, in going about 
the great work before them, deliberately laid aside 
the means by which all preceding legislators had 
aimed to accomplish a like work. In founding a 
strong and efficient government, adequate to the 
raising up of a powerful and prosperous people, their 



EDWARD EVERETT 135 

first step was to reject the institutions in which other 
governments traced their strength and prosperity, 
or had, at least, regarded as the necessary conditions 
of stability and order. The world had settled down 
into the belief that an hereditary monarch was 
necessary to give strength to the executive power. 
The framers of our Constitution provided for an 
elective chief magistrate, chosen every four years. 
Every other country had been betrayed into the 
admission of a distinction of ranks in society, under 
the absurd impression that privileged orders are 
necessary to the permanence of the social system. 
The framers of our Constitution established every- 
thing on the purely natural basis of a uniform equality 
of the elective franchise, to be exercised by all the 
citizens at fixed and short intervals. In other 
countries it had been thought necessary to constitute 
some one political center, towards which all political 
power should tend, and at which, in the last resort, 
it should be exercised. The framers of the Constitu- 
tion devised a scheme of confederate and representa- 
tive sovereign republics, united in a happy distribution 
of powers, which, reserving to the separate States 
all the political functions essential to local ad- 
ministrations and private justice, bestowed upon 
the general government those, and those only, re 
quired for the service of the whole. 

Thus was completed the great revolutionary 
movement; thus was perfected that mature organiza- 



136 BEST AMERICAN ORATIONS 

tion of a free system, destined, as we trust, to stand 
forever, as the exemplar of popular government. 
Thus was discharged the duty of our fathers to 
themselves, to the country, and to the world. 

The power of the example thus set up, in the eyes 
of the nations, was instantly and widely felt. It was 
immediately made visible to sagacious observers 
that a constitutional age had begun. It was in 
the nature of things, that, where the former evil 
existed in its most inveterate form, the reaction 
should also be the most violent. Hence the dreadful 
excesses that marked the progress of the French 
Revolution, and, for a while, almost made the name 
of liberty odious. But it is not less in the nature 
of things, that, when the most indisputable and 
enviable political blessings stand illustrated before 
the world — not merely in speculation and in theory, 
but in hving practice and bright example — the 
nations of the earth, in proportion as they have eyes 
to see, and ears to hear, and hands to grasp, should 
insist on imitating the example. France clung to 
the hope of constitutional liberty through thirty 
years of appaUing tribulation, and now enjoys the 
freest constitution in Europe. Spain, Portugal, 
the two Italian kingdoms, and several of the German 
states have entered on the same path.' Their prog- 
ress has been and must be various, modified by 
circumstances, by the interests and passions of 
governments and men, and, in some cases, seemingly 



EDWARD EVERETT 137 

arrested. But their march is as sure as fate. . . . 
A public opinion of a new kind has risen among men 
— the opinion of the civilized world. Springing 
into existence on the shores of our own continent, it 
has grown with our growth and strengthened with 
our strength, till now, this moral giant, Hke that of 
the ancient poet, marches along the earth and across 
the ocean, but his front is among the stars. The 
course of the day does not weary, nor the darkness 
of the night arrest him. He grasps the pillars of 
the temple where Oppression sits enthroned, not 
groping and benighted, hke the strong man of old, 
to be crushed, himself, beneath the fall, but tram- 
pling, in his strength, on the massy ruins. . . . 

In that unceasing march of things, which calls 
forward the successive generations of men to per- 
form their part on the stage of life, we at length 
are summoned to appear. Our fathers have passed 
their hour of visitation — how worthily, let the 
growth and prosperity of our happy land and the 
security of our firesides attest. Or, if this appeal 
be too weak to move us, let the eloquent silence 
of yonder famous heights — let the column which 
is there rising in simple majesty ^ — recall their 
venerable forms, as they toiled in the hasty trenches 
through the dreary watches of that night of ex- 
pectation, heaving up the sods, where many of them 

* The Bunker Hill monument. 



138 BEST AMERICAN ORATIONS 

lay in peace and honor before the following sun had 
set. The turn has come to us. The trial of ad- 
versity was theirs; the trial of prosperity is ours. 
Let us meet it as men who know their duty and 
prize their blessings. Our position is the most envi- 
able, the most responsible, which men can fill. If 
this generation does its duty, the cause of con- 
stitutional freedom is safe. If we fail — if we fail — 
not only do we defraud our children of the inheritance 
which we received from our fathers, but we blast the 
hopes of the friends of liberty throughout our con- 
tinent, throughout Europe, throughout the world, 
to the end of time. 

History is not without her examples of hard-fought 
fields, where the banner of liberty has floated trium- 
phantly on the wildest storm of battle. She is 
without her examples of a people by whom the 
dear-bought treasure has been wisely employed 
and safely handed down. The eyes of the world 
are turned for that example to us. . . . 

Let us, then, as we assemble on the birthday of 
the nation, as we gather upon the green turf, once wet 
with precious blood — let us devote ourselves to the 
sacred cause of constitutional liberty! Let us abjure 
the interests and passions w^hich divide the great 
family of American freemen ! Let the range of party 
spirit sleep to-day ! Let us resolve that our children 
shall have cause to bless the memory of their fathers, 
as we have cause to bless the memory of ours! 



ROBERT YOUI^G HAYNE 

I 791-1840 



Senator Hayxe was one of whom no one had anything to 
say but words of high, cordial praise. Benton in his "Thirty 
Years' View" wrote: "Nature had lavished upon him all the 
gifts which lead to eminence in public and happiness in private 
life. ... I can truly say that in ten years' association with 
him [in the Senate] I never saw him actuated by a sinister 
motive, a selfish calculation, or an unbecoming aspiration." 

Born of a South Carolina family of small means, his educa- 
tion was confined to a Charleston grammar school and the 
reading of law. Before practising his profession, however, he 
served in the army during the War of 1812 ; after which his ora- 
torical gifts brought him quick success as a lawyer. He served 
in the State legislature from 1 8 1 4 to 1 8 1 8, the last year as Speaker, 
and then became Attorney-General until 1822, when he was 
elected to the United States Senate. Here he had a brilliant 
career, as one of the most industrious on committee, wise in 
council, and eloquent on the floor, besides attracting many 
friendships. In 1832 he became Governor of South Carolina. 

As a strenuous States right man Mr. Hayne had, before 
leaving the Senate, been a member of the South Carolina con? 
vention that adopted the famous nullification ordinance, and as 
Governor of the State he proclaimed it. The ordinance was 
adopted November 24, 1832. On December 10 President 
Jackson vigorously denounced it and Clay's Compromise 
Tariff Act of March, 1833, quieted the agitation. 

While in the Senate, Mr. Hayne was closely associated 
with Calhoun and Benton, and in especial harmony with the 
former he championed the rights of the States, and defended the 
South and its "domestic institutions" [slavery]. It was in a 
speech on Senator Foote's resolution concerning the sale of 
public lands, which process he attacked as favoring the East 
and North to the prejudice of the West and South, that Hayne 
made a speech which Webster answered; from Hayne's 
rejoinder to that (January 21, 1830), are here given the themes 
he chiefly emphasized — the South, slavery, and the rights of the 
States to nullify laws of the United States under the Constitution. 



140 



THE SOUTH AND THE CONSTITU- 
TION 

The honorable gentleman from Massachusetts 
[Mr. Webster] has gone out of his way to pass a high 
eulogium on the State of Ohio. ... In contrast- 
ing the State of Ohio with Kentucky, for the purpose 
of pointing out the superiority of the former, and 
of attributing that superiority to the existence of 
slavery in one State and its absence in the other, 
I thought I could discern the very spirit of the 
Missouri question, intruded into this debate for 
objects best known to the gentleman himself. . . . 
Mr. President, the impression which has gone abroad, 
of the weakness of the South, as connected with the 
slave question, exposes us to such constant attacks, 
has done us so much injury, and is calculated to 
produce such infinite mischiefs, that I embrace the 
occasion presented by the remarks of the gentleman 
of Massachusetts, to declare that we are ready to 
meet the question promptly and fearlessly. It is 
one from which we are not disposed to shrink, in 
whatever form or under whatever circumstances it 
may be pressed upon us. 

We are ready to make up the issue with the gentle- 
man, as to the influence of slavery on individual and 
141 



142 BEST AMERICAN ORATIONS 

national character — on the prosperity and great- 
ness, either of the United States or of particular 
States. Sir, when arraigned before the bar of pubUc 
opinion, on this charge of slavery, we can stand up 
with conscious rectitude, plead not guilty, and put 
ourselves upon God and our country. ... If 
slavery, as it now exists in this country, be an evil, 
we of the present day found it ready made to our 
hands. Finding our lot cast among a people whom 
God had manifestly committed to our care, we did 
not sit down to speculate on abstract questions of 
theoretical liberty. We met it as a practical ques- 
tion of obligation and duty. We resolved to make 
the best of the situation in which Providence had 
placed us, and to fulfill the high trusts which had 
devolved upon us as the owners of slaves in the only 
way in which such a trust could be fulfilled, without 
spreading misery and ruin throughout the land. 
We found that we had to deal with a people whose 
physical, moral, and intellectual habits and char- 
acter totally disqualified them from the enjoyment 
of the blessings of freedom. We could not send 
them back to the shores from w^hence their fathers 
had been taken; their numbers forbade the thought, 
even if we did not know their condition here is in- 
finitely preferable to what it possibly could be among 
the barren sands and savages tribes of Africa; and 
it was wholly irreconcilable with all our notions of 
humanity to tear asunder the tender ties which they 



ROBERT YOUNG HAYNE 



143 



had formed among us, to gratify the feelings of a 
false philanthropy. . . . 

Sir, I have had some opportunities of making com- 
parison between the condition of the free negroes 
of the North, and the slaves of the South, and the 
comparison has left not only an indeUble impression 
of the superior advantages of the latter, but has gone 
far to reconcile me to slavery itself. Never have 
I felt so forcibly that touching description, ''the 
foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests, 
but the Son of Man hath not where to lay his 
head," as when I have seen this unhappy race, naked 
and houseless, almost starving in the streets, and 
abandoned by all the world. Sir, I have seen, in 
the neighborhood of one of the most moral, religious, 
and refined cities of the North, a family of free 
blacks driven to the caves of the rocks, and there 
obtaining a precarious subsistence from charity and 
plunder. 

When the gentleman from Massachusetts adopts 
and reiterates the old charge of weakness as resulting 
from slavery, I must be permitted to call for the proof 
of those blighting effects which he ascribes to its 
influence. I suspect that when the subject is closely 
examined it will be found that there is not much 
force even in the plausible objection of the want of 
physical power in slaveholding States. The power 
of a country is compounded of its population and 
its wealth, and in modern times, where, from the 



144 ^EST AMERICAN ORATIONS 

very form and structure of society, by far the greater 
portion of the people must, even during the con- 
tinuance of the most desolating wars, be employed 
in the cultivation of the soil and other peaceful 
pursuits, it may be well doubted, whether slave- 
holding States, by reason of the superior value of 
their productions, are not able to maintain a number 
of troops in the field, fully equal to what could be 
supported by States, w4th a larger white population, 
but not possessed of equal resources. 

It is a popular error, to suppose that in any possible 
state of things, the people of a country could ever 
be called out en masse, or that a half, or a third, 
or even a fifth part of the physical force of any 
country, could ever be brought into the field. The 
difficulty is not to procure men, but to provide the 
means of maintaining them; and in this view of the 
subject, it may be asked whether the Southern 
States are not a source of strength and power, and 
not of weakness to the country? — whether they 
have not contributed, and are not now contributing, 
largely to the wealth and prosperity of every State 
in this Union? From a statement which I hold in 
my hand, it appears that in ten years — from 1818 
to 1827, inclusive — the whole amount of the domes- 
tic exports of the United States was $521,811,045; 
of which, three articles (the product of slave la- 
bor), viz., cotton, rice, and tobacco, amounted to 
$339,203,232 — equal to about two-thirds of the 



ROBERT YOUNG HAYNE 



145 



whole. It is not true, as has been supposed, that 
the advantages of this labor are confined almost 
exclusively to the Southern States. Sir, I am 
thoroughly convinced, that at this time, the States 
north of the Potomac actually derive greater profits 
from the labor of our slaves, than we do ourselves. 
It appears from our public documents, that in seven 
years, from 182 1 to 1827, inclusive, the six Southern 
States exported $190,337,281, and imported only 
$55,646,301. Now the difference between these 
two sums (near $140,000,000) passed through the 
hands of the Northern merchants, and enabled them 
to carry on their commercial operations with all the 
world. Such part of these goods as found its way 
back to our hands came charged with the duties, as 
well as the profits, of the merchant, the shipowner, 
and a host of others, who found employment in carry- 
ing on these immense exchanges; and for such part 
as was consumed at the North, we received in ex- 
change Northern manufactures, charged with an 
increased price, to cover all the taxes which the 
Northern consumer has been compelled to pay on 
the imported article. It will be seen, therefore, at 
a glance, how much slave labor has contributed to 
the wealth and prosperity of the United States, and 
how largely our Northern brethren have participated 
in the profits of that labor. ... 

But, Sir, whatever difference of opinion may exist 
as to the effect of slavery on national wealth and 



146 BEST AMERICAN ORATIONS 

prosperity, if we may trust to experience, there can 
be no doubt that it has never yet produced any in- 
jurious effect on individual or national character. 
Look through the whole history of the country, from 
the commencement of the Revolution down to the 
present hour; where are there to be found brighter 
examples of intellectual and moral greatness than 
have been exhibited by the sons of the South? 
From the Father of his Country, down to the dis- 
tinguished chieftain who has been elevated by a 
grateful people to the highest office in their gift, 
the interval is filled up by a long line of orators, of 
statesmen, and of heroes, justly entitled to rank 
among the ornaments of their country, and the bene- 
factors of mankind. Look at ''the Old Dominion," 
great and magnanimous Virginia, "whose jewels 
are her sons." Is there any State in this Union 
which has contributed so much to the honor and 
welfare of the country? Sir, I will yield the whole 
question — I will acknowledge the fatal effects of 
slavery upon character, if any one can say, that for 
noble disinterestedness, ardent love of country, ex- 
alted virtue, and a pure and holy devotion to liberty, 
the people of the Southern States have ever been sur- 
passed by any in the world. . . . 

The senator from Massachusetts tells us that 
the tariff is not an Eastern measure, and treats 
it as if the East had no interest in it. The 
senator from Missouri insists it is not a Western 



ROBERT YOUNG HAYNE 



147 



measure, and that it has done no good to the 
West. The South comes in, and, in the most 
earnest manner, represents to you, that this meas- 
ure, which we are told "is of no value to the 
East or the West," is "utterly destructive of our 
interests." We represent to you, that it has spread 
ruin and devastation through the land, and prostrated 
our hopes in the dust. We solemnly declare that we 
believe the system to be wholly unconstitutional, 
and a violation of the compact between the States 
and the Union; and our brethren turn a deaf ear to 
our complaints, and refuse to relieve us from a sys- 
tem "w^hich not enriches them, but makes us poor 
indeed." Good God! Mr. President, has it come to 
this? Do gentlemen hold the feelings and wishes 
of their brethren at so cheap a rate, that they refuse 
to gratify them at so small a price ? Do gentlemen 
value so lightly the peace and harmony of the 
country, that they will not yield a measure of this 
description to the affectionate entreaties and earnest 
remonstrances of their friends? Do gentlemen 
estimate the value of the Union at so low a price, 
that they will not even make one effort to bind the 
States together with the cords of affection? And 
has it come to this ? Is this the spirit in which this 
government is to be administered? If so, let me 
tell gentlemen, the seeds of dissolution are already 
sowm, and our children will reap the bitter fruit. . . . 
The gentleman has made a great flourish about his 



148 BEST AMERICAN ORATIONS 

fidelity to Massachusetts; I shall make no profes- 
sions of zeal for the interests and honor of South 
Carolina — of that, my constituents shall judge. 
If there be one State in the Union, Mr. President 
(and I say it not in a boastful spirit), that may chal- 
lenge comparisons with any other, for an uniform, 
zealous, ardent, and uncalculating devotion to the 
Union, that State is South Carolina. Sir, from the 
very commencement of the Revolution up to this 
hour, there is no sacrifice, however great, she has not 
cheerfully made; no service she has ever hesitated 
to perform. She has adhered to you in your pros- 
perity; but in your adversity she has clung to you, 
with more than filial affection. No matter what 
was the condition of her domestic affairs, though 
deprived of her resources, divided by parties, or sur- 
rounded with difficulties, the call of the country has 
been to her as the voice of God. Domestic discord 
ceased at the sound; every man became at once 
reconciled to his brethren, and the sons of Carolina 
were all seen crowding together to the temple, bring- 
ing their gifts to the altar of their common country. 
What, Sir, was the conduct of the South during the 
Revolution ? Sir, I honor New England for her con- 
duct in that glorious struggle. But great as is the 
praise which belongs to her, I think, at least equal 
honor is due to the South. They espoused the quarrel 
of their brethren, with a generous zeal, which did 
not suffer them to stop to calculate their interest 



ROBERT YOUNG HAYNE 149 

in the dispute. Favorites of the mother-country, 
possessed of neither ships nor seamen to create a 
commercial rivalship, they might have found in their 
situation a guaranty that their trade would be for- 
ever fostered and protected by Great Britain. But 
trampling on all considerations either of interest 
or of safety, they rushed into the conflict, and 
fighting for principle, periled all, in the sacred cause 
of freedom. Never was there exhibited in the history 
of the world higher examples of noble daring, dreadful 
suffering, and heroic endurance, than by the Whigs 
of Carolina, during the Revolution. The whole 
State, from the mountains to the sea, was overrun 
by an overwhelming force of the enemy. The 
fruits of industry perished on the spot where they 
were produced, or w^re consumed by the foe. The 
"plains of Carolina" drank up the most precious 
blood of her citizens! Black and smoking ruin 
marked the places which had been the habitations 
of her children! Driven from their homes, into the 
gloomy and almost impenetrable swamps, even there 
the spirit of liberty survived, and South Carohna 
(sustained by the example of her Sumters and her 
Marions) proved, by her conduct, that though her 
soil might be overrun, the spirit of her people was 
invincible. . . . 

I come now to the War of 181 2 — a war which I 
well remember was called in derision (while its event 
was doubtful) the Southern war, and sometimes the 



T50 



BEST AMERICAN ORATIONS 



Carolina war; but which is now universally acknowl- 
edged to have done more for the honor and pros- 
perity of the country, than all other events in our 
history put together. What, Sir, were the objects 
of that war? "Free trade and sailors' rights"! 
It was for the protection of Northern shipping, and 
New England seamen, that the country flew to arms. 
. . . Sir, the whole South, animated as by a com- 
mon impulse, cordially united in declaring and 
promoting that war. South Carolina sent to your 
councils, as the advocates and supporters of that war, 
the noblest of her sons. How they fulfilled that trust, 
let a grateful country tell. Not a measure was 
adopted, not a battle fought, not a victory won, 
which contributed in any degree, to the success of 
that war, to which Southern counsels and Southern 
valor did not largely contribute. Sir, since South 
Carolina is assailed, I must be suffered to speak it 
to her praise, that at the very moment when, in one 
quarter, we heard it solemnly proclaimed, "that it 
did not become a religious and moral people to rejoice 
at the victories of our army or our navy," her legis- 
lature unanimously "Resolved, That we will cor- 
dially support the government in the vigorous prose- 
cution of the war, until a peace can be obtained on 
honorable terms, and we will cheerfully submit to 
every privation that may be required of us, by 
our government, for the accomplishment of this 
object." 



ROBERT YOUNG HA YNE 151 

South Carolina redeemed that pledge. She threw 
open her treasury to the government. She put at 
the absolute disposal of the officers of the United 
States all that she possessed — her men, her money, 
and her arms. She appropriated half a million of 
dollars, on her own account, in defense of her mari- 
time frontier, ordered a brigade of State troops to be 
raised, and when left to protect herself by her own 
means, never suffered the enemy to touch her soil, 
without being instantly driven off or captured. 

Such, Sir, was the conduct of the South — such 
the conduct of my own State in that dark hour 
*' which tried men's souls." . . . 

It will be recollected, Sir, that our great causes of 
quarrel with Great Britain were her depredations 
on Northern commerce, and the impressment of New 
England seamen. From every quarter we were called 
upon for protection. Importunate as the West is 
now^ represented to be, on another subject, the 
importunity of the East on that occasion w^as far 
greater. I hold in my hands the evidence of the 
fact. Here are petitions, mem.orials, and remion- 
strances from all parts of New England, setting 
forth the injustice, the oppression, the depredations, 
the insults, the outrages, committed by Great Brit- 
ain against the unoffending commerce and seamen 
of New^ England, and calling upon Congress for 
redress. . . . 

Well, Sir, the war at length came, and what did 



152 



BEST AMERICAN ORATIONS 



we behold? The very men who had been for six 
years clamorous for war, and for whose protection 
it was waged, became at once equally clamorous 
against it. They had received a miraculous visita- 
tion; a new Hght suddenly beamed upon their minds, 
the scales fell from their eyes, and it was discov- 
ered that the war was declared from "subserviency 
to France"; and that Congress, and the Executive, 
"had sold themselves to Napoleon"; that Great 
Britain had, in fact, "done us no essential injury"; 
that she was "the bulwark of our religion"; that 
where "she took one of our ships, she protected 
twenty"; and, that if Great Britain had impressed 
a few of our seamen it was because "she could not 
distinguish them from her own." . . . Whatever 
difference of opinion might have existed as to the 
causes of the war, the country had a right to expect, 
that when once involved in the contest, all America 
would have cordially united in its support. Sir, the 
war effected in its progress a union of all parties at 
the South. But not so in New England; there, 
great efforts were made to stir up the minds of the 
people to oppose it. Nothing was left undone to 
embarrass the financial operations of the government, 
to prevent the enlistment of troops, to keep back 
the men and money of New England from the service 
of the Union — to force the President from his seat. 
Sir, if I am asked for the proof of those things, 
I fearlessly appeal to contemporary history, to the 



ROBERT YOUNG HAYNE 1 53 

public documents of the country, to the recorded 
opinion and acts of pubHc assembhes, to the declara- 
tion and acknowledgments, since made, of the execu- 
tive and legislature of Massachusetts herself. . . . 

Who, then, Mr. President, are the true friends of 
the Union? Those who would confine the Federal 
government strictly within the limits prescribed by 
the Constitution; who would preserve to the States 
and the people all powers not expressly delegated; 
who would make this a federal and not a national 
union, and who, administering the government in a 
spirit of equal justice, would make it a blessing and 
not a curse. And who are its enemies? Those who 
are in favor of consolidation — who are constantly 
steaUng power from the States and adding strength 
to the Federal government; who, assuming an un- 
warrantable jurisdiction over the States and the 
people, undertake to regulate the whole industry 
and capital of the country. But, Sir, of all descrip- 
tions of men, I consider those as the worst enemies 
of the Union, who sacrifice the equal rights which 
belong to every member of the confederacy, to com- 
binations of interested majorities, for personal or 
political objects. . . . 

The senator from Massachusetts, in denouncing 
what he is pleased to call the Carolina doctrine, has 
attempted to throw ridicule upon the idea that a 
State has any constitutional remedy, by the exercise 
of its sovereign authority, against "sl gross, palpable. 



154 BEST AMERICAN ORATIONS 

and deliberate violation of the Constitution." He 



J) 



thing to that effect, and added, that it would make 
the Union "a mere rope of sand." Now, Sir, as the 
gentleman has not condescended to enter into any 
examination of the question, and has been satisfied 
with throwing the weight of his authority into the 
scale, I do not deem it necessary to do more than to 
throw into the opposite scale, the authority on which 
South Carolina relies; and there, for the present, 
I am perfectly willing to leave the controversy. 

[Here Mr. Hayne cited resolutions from various State 
legislatures.] 

Thus, it will be seen, Mr. President, that the South 
Carolina doctrine is the RepubUcan doctrine of '98: 
that it was promulgated by the fathers of the faith 
— that it was maintained by Virginia and Kentucky 
in the worst of times — that it constituted the very 
pivot on which the political revolution of that day 
turned — that it embraces the very principles, the 
triumph of which, at that time, saved the Constitu- 
tion at its last gasp, and which New England states- 
men were not unwilling to adopt, when they believed 
themselves to be the victims of unconstitutional 
legislation. Sir, as to the doctrine that the Federal 
government is the exclusive judge of the extent as 
well as the limitations of its powers, it seems to me 
to be utterly subversive of the sovereignty and inde- 



ROBERT YOUNG HAYNE 155 

pendence of the States. It makes but little differ- 
ence, in my estimation, whether Congress or the 
Supreme Court are invested with this power. If the 
Federal government, in all, or any of its departments, 
is to prescribe the limits of its own authority, and 
the States are bound to submit to the decision, and 
are not to be allowed to examine and decide for them- 
selves when the barriers of the Constitution shall be 
overleaped, this is practically "a, government with- 
out Hmitation of powers." The States are at once 
reduced to mere petty corporations, and the people 
are entirely at your mercy. 

I have but one w^ord more to add. In all the 
efforts that have been made by South Carolina to 
resist the unconstitutional laws which Congress has 
extended over them, she has kept steadily in view 
the preservation of the Union, by the only means by 
which she believes it can be long preserved — a firm, 
manly, and steady resistance against usurpation. 
The measures of the Federal government have, it is 
true, prostrated her interests, and will soon involve 
the whole South in irretrievable ruin. But even this 
evil, great as it is, is not the chief ground of our 
complaints. It is the principle involved in the con- 
test — a principle which, substituting the discretion 
of Congress for the limitations of the Constitution, 
brings the States and the people to the feet of the 
Federal government, and leaves them nothing they 
can call their own. Sir, if the measures of the Federal 



T56 BEST AMERICAN ORATIONS 

government were less oppressive, we should still 
strive against this usurpation. The South is acting 
on a principle she has always held sacred — resist- 
ance to unauthorized taxation. These, Sir, are the 
principles which induced the immortal Hampden 
to resist the payment of a tax of twenty shillings. 
Would twenty shiUings have ruined his fortune? 
No! but the payment of half twenty shilKngs, on 
the principle on which it w^as demanded, would have 
made him a slave. Sir, if in acting on these high 
motives — if animated by that ardent love of liberty 
which has always been the most prominent trait in 
the Southern character — we should be hurried be- 
yond the bounds of a cold and calculating prudence, 
who is there, with one noble and generous sentiment 
in his bosom, that would not be disposed, in the 
language of Burke, to exclaim, "You must pardon 
something to the spirit of liberty!" 



DANIEL WEBSTER 

1782-1852 



Through pinching family economy Daniel Webster 
graduated at Dartmouth (1801), and in 1805, at the age of 
twenty-three, began legal practice in Boscawen and Portsmouth 
in New Hampshire, his native State. In 1813 he became Con- 
gressman from that State, and thereafter spent his active life 
chiefly in Washington, although often called away for important 
legal arguments, or addresses on great occasions, — laying the 
corner-stone of Bunker Hill Monument (1825) and its dedication 
(1843), commemorating the deaths of Jefferson and Adams 
(1836), etc. He removed his residence to Boston in 1816, and 
from 1823 represented Massachusetts in the House of Represent- 
atives till 1827, and in the Senate till 1841, and 1845 to 1850. 

Webster was a wonderful lawyer, with vast legal knowledge 
and colossal oratorical power, which also made him a leader 
in Congress, especially as to construction of the Constitution, 
the relations of which to the people and the States had been 
his profound study. Webster's dominance in oratory arose 
from his majestic personality, his mastery of every subject 
discussed, his lucid method of statement, his fund of historical 
and literary illustration, and his power of raising his theme to 
the regions of emotion and by his grand voice and presence 
transporting his hearers thither also. 

This appeared signally in his reply to Senator Hayne's 
second speech on the Foote resolution concerning sales of 
public lands. Hayne spoke; Webster replied; Hayne re- 
joined (see pp. 141-156), covering many matters, but especially 
"The South and the Union." Then (January 26, 1830) 
Webster made that fundamental speech on which thereafter 
stood the defenders of Constitution and Union. Portions 
referring to the South, State sovereignty, and the Constitution 
are herewith given. 

Webster was twice Secretary of State, achieving notable 
service. He was twice Whig Presidential candidate — never 
reaching his highest ambition. Yet the presidency would 
have added nothing to the fame of this great lawyer, councilor, 
Ir-gislator, philosopher, statesman, and orator. 

158 



THE STATES AND THE CONSTITU- 
TION 

Mr. President: When the mariner has been 
tossed for many days, in thick weather, and on an 
unknown sea, he naturally avails himself of the first 
pause in the storm, the earliest glance of the sun, 
to take his latitude, and ascertain how far the ele- 
ments have driven him from his true course. Let 
us imitate this prudence, and, before we float farther 
on the waves of this debate, refer to the point from 
which we departed, that we may at least be able to 
conjecture where we now are. I ask for the reading 
of the resolution. 

[The secretary read the resolution relating to the sales 
of public lands.] 

We have thus heard, Sir, what the resolution is, 
which is actually before us for consideration ; and it 
will readily occur to every one that it is almost the 
only subject about which something has not been 
said in the speech, running through two days, by 
which the Senate has been now entertained by the 
gentleman from South Carolina. Every topic in 
the wide range of our pubHc affairs, whether past 
or present — everything, general or local, whether 
159 



l6o BEST AMERICAN ORATIONS 

belonging to national politics, or party politics, 
seems to have attracted more or less of the hon- 
orable member's attention, save only the resolution 
before the Senate. He has spoken of everything 
but the public lands. They have escaped his notice. 
To that subject, in all his excursions, he has not paid 
even the cold respect of a passing glance. . . . 

I spoke. Sir, of the ordinance of 1787, which pro- 
hibited slavery in all future times northwest of the 
Ohio, as a measure of great wisdom and foresight; 
and one w^hich had been attended with highly bene- 
ficial and permanent consequences. I supposed that 
on this point no two gentlemen in the Senate could 
entertain different opinions. But the simple expres- 
tion of this sentiment has led the gentleman not only 
into a labored defense of slavery, in the abstract, 
and on principle, but, also, into a warm accusation 
against me, as having attacked the system of domes- 
tic slavery now^ existing in the Southern States. 
For all this there was not the slightest foundation in 
anything said or intimated by me. I did not utter 
a single word which any ingenuity could torture into 
an attack on the slavery of the South. I said only 
that it was highly wise and useful in legislating for 
the northwestern country, while it was yet a wilder- 
ness, to prohibit the introduction of slaves; and 
added, that I presumed, in the neighboring State of 
Kentucky, there was no reflecting and intelligent 
gentleman, who would doubt, that if the same pro- 



DANIEL WEBSTER l6l 

hibition had been extended at the same early period 
over that commonwealth, her strength and popula- 
tion would, at this day, have been far greater than 
they are. . . . The slavery of the South has always 
been regarded as a matter of domestic policy, left 
with the States themselves, and with which the Fed- 
eral government had nothing to do. Certainly, Sir, 
I am, and ever have been of that opinion. The 
gentleman, indeed, argues that slavery, in the ab- 
stract, is no evil. Most assuredly I need not say I 
differ w^ith him, altogether and most widely, on that 
point. I regard domestic slavery as one of the great- 
est of evils, both moral and poHtical. But though 
it be a malady, and whether it be curable, and if so, 
by what means; or, on the other hand, whether it be 
the vulnus immedicabile of the social system, I leave 
it to those whose right and duty it is to inquire and 
to decide. And this I beUeve, Sir, is, and uniformly 
has been, the sentiment of the North. . . . 

Let me observe, that the eulogium pronounced on 
the character of the State of South CaroHna, by the 
honorable gentleman, for her Revolutionary and other 
merits, meets my hearty concurrence. I shall not 
acknowledge that the honorable member goes before 
me in regard for whatever of distinguished talent, or 
distinguished character. South Carolina has pro- 
duced. I claim part of the honor, I partake in the 
pride, of her great names. I claim them for country- 
men, one and all. The Laurenses, the Rutledges, 



1 62 BEST AMERICAN ORATIONS 

the Pinckneys, the Sumters, the Marions — Ameri- 
cans, all — whose fame is no more to be hemmed in 
by State hnes than their talents and patriotism were 
capable of being circumscribed within the same nar- 
row limits. In their day and generation they served 
and honored the country, and the whole country; and 
their renowm is of the treasures of the whole country. 
Him, whose honored name the gentleman himself 
bears — does he esteem me less capable of gratitude 
for his patriotism, or sympathy for his sufferings, 
than if his eyes had first opened upon the light 
of Massachusetts, instead of South Carolina? Sir, 
does he suppose it in his powxr to exhibit a Carolina 
name so bright as to produce envy in my bosom? 
No, Sir, increased gratification and delight, rather. 
I thank God, that, if I am gifted with little of the 
spirit which is able to raise mortals to the skies, I 
have yet none, as I trust, of that other spirit, which 
would drag angels down. When I shall be found. Sir, 
in my place here, in the Senate, or elsewhere, to sneer 
at public merit, because it happens to spring up be- 
yond the httle Umits of my own State, or neighbor- 
hood; when I refuse, for any such cause, or for any 
cause, the homage due to American talent, to ele- 
vated patriotism, to sincere devotion to liberty 
and the country; or, if I see an uncommon endow- 
ment of Heaven — if I see extraordinary capacity 
and \drtue in any son of the South — and if, moved 
by local prejudice, or gangrened by State jealousy, I 



DANIEL WEBSTER 163 

get up here to abate the tithe of a hair from just 
character and just fame, may my tongue cleave to 
the roof of my mouth! 

Sir, let me recur to pleasing recollections — let 
me indulge in refreshing remembrances of the past 
— let me remind you that in early times, no States 
cherished greater harmony, both of principle and 
feeling, than Massachusetts and South Carolina. 
Would to God that harmony might again return! 
Shoulder to shoulder they went through the Revolu- 
tion — hand in hand they stood round the adminis- 
tration of Washington, and felt his own great arm 
lean on them for support. Unkind feeling, if it 
exist, alienation and distrust, are the growth, un- 
natural to such soils, of false principles since sown. 
They are weeds, the seeds of which that same great 
arm never scattered. 

Mr. President, I shall enter on no encomium upon 
Massachusetts — she needs none. There she is — 
behold her, and judge for yourselves. There is her 
history; the world knows it by heart. The past, 
at least, is secure. There is Boston, and Concord, 
and Lexington, and Bunker Hill — and there they 
will remain forever. The bones of her sons, falling 
in the great struggle for independence, now lie 
mingled with the soil of every State, from New Eng- 
land to Georgia; and there they will lie forever. 
And, Sir, where American liberty raised its first voice 
and where its youth was nurtured and sustained 



164 BEST AMERICAN ORATIONS 

there it still lives, in the strength of its manhood and 
full of its original spirit. If discord and disunion 
shall wound it — if party strife and bhnd ambition 
shall hawk at and tear it — if folly and madness — if 
uneasiness, under salutary and necessary restraint 
— shall succeed to separate it from that Union, by 
which alone its existence is made sure, it will stand, 
in the end, by the side of that cradle in which its 
infancy was rocked; it will stretch forth its arm 
with whatever of vigor it may still retain, over the 
friends who gather round it; and it will fall at last, 
if fall it must, amidst the proudest monuments of 
its own glory, and on the very spot of its origin. 

There yet remains to be performed, Mr. President, 
by far the most grave and important duty, which I 
feel to be devolved on me, by this occasion. It is 
to state, and to defend, what I conceive to be the 
true principles of the Constitution under which we 
are here assembled. I might well have desired that 
so weighty a task should have fallen into other and 
abler hands. I could have wished that it should have 
been executed by those, whose character and expe- 
rience give weight and influence to their opinions 
such as cannot possibly belong to mine. But, 
Sir, I have met the occasion, not sought it; and I 
shall proceed to state my own sentiments, without 
challenging for them any particular regard, with 
studied plainness, and as much precision as possible. 

I understand the honorable gentleman from South 



DANIEL WEBSTER 1 65 

Carolina to maintain that it is a right of the State 
legislatures to interfere, whenever, in their judgment, 
this Government transcends its constitutional limits, 
and to arrest the operation of its laws. 

I understand him to maintain this right; as a 
right existing under the Constitution, not as a right 
to overthrow it, on the ground of extreme necessity, 
such as would justify violent revolution. 

I understand him to maintain an authority, on 
the part of the States, thus to interfere, for the pur- 
pose of correcting the exercise of power by the general 
Government, of checking it, and of compelling it to 
conform to their opinion of the extent of its powers. 

I understand him to maintain, that the ultimate 
power of judging of the constitutional extent of its 
own authority, is not lodged exclusively in the general 
Government, or any branch of it; but that, on the 
contrary, the States may law^fully decide for them- 
selves, and each State for itself, whether, in a given 
case, the act of the general Government transcends 
it power. 

I understand him to insist, that if the exigency of 
the case, in the opinion of any State government, 
require it, such State government may, by its own 
sovereign authority, annul an act of the general 
Government, which it deems plainly and palpably 
unconstitutional. 

This is the sum of what I understood from him, to 
be the South Carolina doctrine; and the doctrine 



1 66 BEST AMERICAN ORATIONS 

which he maintains. I propose to consider it, and 
compare it with the Constitution. Allow me to say, 
as a preliminary remark, that I call this the South 
Carolina doctrine, only because the gentleman him- 
self has so denominated it. . . . 

We, Sir, who oppose the Carolina doctrine, do not 
deny that the people may, if they choose, throw off 
any government, when it becomes oppressive and 
intolerable, and erect a better in its stead. We all 
know that civil institutions are established for the 
public benefit, and that when they cease to answer 
the ends of their existence, they may be changed. 
But I do not understand the doctrine now contended 
for to be that, which, for the sake of distinctness, 
we may call the right of revolution. I understand 
the gentleman to maintain, that, without revolution, 
without civil commotion, without rebellion, a remedy 
for supposed abuse and transgression of the powers 
of the general Government lies in a direct appeal to 
the interference of the State governments. What 
he contends for is, that it is constitutional to inter- 
rupt the administration of the Constitution itself, in 
the hands of those who are chosen and sworn to 
administer it, by the direct interference, in form of 
law, of the States, in virtue of their sovereign capac- 
ity. The inherent right in the people to reform their 
government I do not deny; and they have another 
right, and that is, to resist unconstitutional laws 
without overturning the government. It is no doc- 



DANIEL WEBSTER 167 

trine of mine, that unconstitutional laws bind the 
people. The great question is, whose prerogative is 
it to decide on the constitutionality, or unconstitu- 
tionality of the laws? On that the main debate 
liinges. 

The proposition, that, in case of a supposed viola- 
tion of the Constitution by Congress, the States have 
a constitutional right to interfere, and annul the law 
of Congress, is the proposition of the gentleman: 
I do not admit it. If the gentleman had intended 
no more than to assert the right of revolution, for 
justifiable cause, he would have said only what all 
agree to. But I cannot conceive that there can be 
a middle course, between submission to the laws, 
when regularly pronounced constitutional, on the one 
hand, and open resistance, which is revolution, or 
rebellion, on the other. . . . 

It is observable enough, that the doctrine for which 
the honorable gentleman contends, leads him to the 
necessity of maintaining, not only that this general 
Government is the creature of the States, but that it 
is the creature of each of the States severally; so 
that each may assert the power, for itself, of deter- 
mining whether it acts within the limits of its au- 
thority. It is the servant of f our-and-twenty masters, 
of different wills and different purposes, and yet 
bound to obey all. This absurdity (for it seems no 
less) arises from a misconception as to the origin 
of this Government and its true character. It is, Sir, 



l68 BEST AMERICAN ORATIONS 

the people's Constitution, the people's government; 
made for the people; made by the people; and an- 
swerable to the people. The people of the United 
States have declared that this Constitution shall be 
the supreme law. We must either admit the propo- 
sition, or dispute their authority. ... 

The national Government possesses those powers 
which it can be shown the people have conferred on 
it, and no more. All the rest belongs to the State 
governments or to the people themselves. So far as 
the people have restrained State sovereignty, by the 
expression of their will in the Constitution of the 
United States, so far, it must be admitted. State 
sovereignty is effectually controlled. I do not con- . 
tend that it is, or ought to be, controlled farther. 

The sentiment to w^hich I have referred, propounds 
that State sovereignty is only to be controlled by its 
own " feeling of justice " ; that is to say, it is not to be 
controlled at all; for one who is to follow his own 
feelings is under no legal control. Now, however 
men may think this ought to be, the fact is, that 
the people of the United States have chosen to im- 
pose control on State sovereignties. There are those, 
doubtless, who wish they had been left without 
restraint; but the Constitution has ordered the 
matter differently. To make war, for instance, is an 
exercise of sovereignty ; but the Constitution declares 
that no State shall make war. To coin money is 
another exercise of sovereign power; but no State is 



DANIEL WEBSTER 169 

at liberty to coin money. Again, the Constitution 
says that no sovereign State shall be so sovereign 
as to make a treaty. These prohibitions, it must be 
confessed, are a control on the State sovereignty of 
South Carolina, as well as of the other States, which 
does not arise "from her own feelings of honorable 
justice." Such an opinion, therefore, is in defiance 
of the plainest provisions of the Constitution. . . . 

Is the voice of one State conclusive ? It so hap- 
pens that at the very moment when South Carolina 
resolves that the tariff laws are unconstitutional, 
Pennsylvania and Kentucky resolve exactly the 
reverse. They hold those laws to be both highly 
proper and strictly constitutional. And now. Sir, 
how does the honorable member propose to deal with 
this case ? How does he relieve us from this diffi- 
culty upon any principle of his ? His construction 
gets us into it; how does he propose to get us out ? 

In Carolina the tariff is a palpable, deliberate 
usurpation; Carolina, therefore, may nullify it, 
and refuse to pay the duties. In Pennsylvania it 
is both clearly constitutional and highly expedient; 
and there the duties are to be paid. And yet we live 
under a government of uniform laws, and under a 
constitution, too, which contains an express provision, 
as it happens, that all duties shall be equal in all the 
States. Does not this approach absurdity ? 

If there be no power to settle such questions, inde- 
pendent of either of the States, is not the whole 



lyo BEST AMERICAN ORATIONS 

Union a rope of sand ? Are we not thrown back 
again precisely upon the old Confederation ? 

It is too plain to be argued. Four-and-twenty 
interpreters of constitutional law, each with a power 
to decide for itself, and none with authority to bind 
anybody else, and this constitutional law the only 
bond of their union! What is such a state of things 
but a mere connection during pleasure, or, to use the 
phraseology of the times, during feeling ? And that 
feeling, too, not the feeling of the people, who estab- 
lished the Constitution, but the feeling of the State 
governments. . . . 

And now, Sir, what I have first to say on this sub- 
ject is, that, at no time, and under no circumstances, 
has New England, or any State in New England, or 
any respectable body of persons in New England, 
or any public man of standing in New England, put 
forth such a doctrine as this Carohna doctrine. . . . 
Let us follow up, sir, this New England opposition to 
the embargo laws; let us trace it till we discern the 
principle, which controlled and governed New Eng- 
land, throughout the whole course of that opposition. 
We shall then see what similarity there is between 
the New England school of constitutional opinions, 
and this modern Carolina school. The gentleman, 
I think, read a petition from some single individual, 
addressed to the legislature of Massachusetts, assert- 
ing the Carolina doctrine — that is, the right of State 
interference to arrest the laws of the Union. The 



DANIEL WEBSTER 171 

fate of that petition shows the sentiment of the legis- 
lature. It met no favor. The opinions of Massa- 
chusetts were otherwise. They had been expressed, 
in 1798, in answer to the resolutions of Virginia, and 
she did not depart from them, nor bend them to the 
times. Misgoverned, wronged, oppressed as she 
felt herself to be, she still held fast her integrity to 
the Union. The gentleman may find in her pro- 
ceedings much evidence of dissatisfaction with the 
measures of Government, and great and deep dislike 
to the embargo; all this makes the case so much 
the stronger for her; for notwithstanding all this 
dissatisfaction and disUke, she claimed no right, still, 
to sever asunder the bonds of the Union. There 
was heat, and there was anger, in her political feeling. 
Be it so; her heat or her anger did not, nevertheless 
betray her into infidelity to the Government. The 
gentleman labors to prove that she disliked the em- 
bargo, as much as South Carohna disUkes the tariff, 
and expressed her disUke as strongly. Be it so; but 
did she propose the Carolina remedy? — did she 
threaten to interfere, by State authority, to annul 
the laws of the Union ? . . . 

In such a case, under such circumstances, how 
did Massachusetts demean herself? Sir, she re- 
monstrated, she memorialized, she addressed herself 
to the general Government, not exactly "with the 
concentrated energy of passion," but with her own 
strong sense, and the energy of sober conviction. 



172 BEST AMERICAN ORATIONS 

But she did not interpose the arm of her own power 
to arrest the law, and break the embargo. Far 
from it. Her principles bound her to two things; 
and she followed her principles, lead where they 
might. First, to submit to every constitutional 
law of Congress, and, secondly, if the constitutional 
vahdity of the law be doubted, to refer that ques- 
tion to the decision of the proper tribunals. The 
first principle is vain and ineffectual without the 
second. . . . Before those tribunals, therefore, 
they brought the question. . . . 

This Government, Sir, is the independent offspring 
of the popular will. It is not the creature of State 
legislatures; nay, more, if the whole truth must be 
told, the people brought it into existence, estabUshed 
it, and have hitherto supported it, for the very pur- 
pose, amongst others, of imposing certain salutary 
restraints on State sovereignties. The States can- 
not now make war; they cannot contract affiances; 
they cannot make, each for itself, separate regula- 
tions of commerce; they cannot lay imposts; they 
cannot coin money. If this Constitution, Sir, be 
the creature of State legislatures, it must be admitted 
that it has obtained a strange control over the voli- 
tions of its creators. . . . 

But, Sir, the people have wisely provided, in the 
Constitution itself, a proper, suitable mode and tri- 
bunal for settling questions of constitutional law. 
There are in the Constitution, grants of powers to 



DANIEL WEBSTER 1 73 

Congress; and restrictions on these powers. There 
are, also, prohibitions on the States. Some authority 
must, therefore, necessarily exist, having the ulti- 
mate jurisdiction to fix and ascertain the interpre- 
tation of these grants, restrictions, and prohibitions. 
The Constitution has itself pointed out, ordained, 
and established that authority. How has it accom- 
phshed this great and essential end ? By declaring. 
Sir, that ''the Constitution and the lav>s of the 
United States, made in pursuance thereof, shall be 
the supreme law of the land, anything in the 
Constitution or laws of any State to the contrary 
notwithstanding." 

This, Sir, was the first great step. By this the 
supremacy of the Constitution and laws of the United 
States is declared. The people so will it. No 
State law is to be valid which comes in conflict with 
the Constitution, or any law of the United States 
passed in pursuance of it. But who shall decide this 
question of interference ? To whom lies the last 
appeal ? This, Sir, the Constitution itself decides, 
also, by declaring, that "the judicial power shall 
extend to all cases arising under the Constitution 
and laws of the United States." These two pro- 
visions, Sir, cover the whole ground. They are in 
truth, the keystone of the arch. With these, it is 
a Constitution; without them, it is a Confederacy. 

Let it be remembered, that the Constitution of 
the United States is not unalterable. It is to con- 



174 BEST AMERICAN ORATIONS 

tinue in its present form no longer than the people 
who established it shall choose to continue it. If 
they shall become convinced that they have made 
an injudicious or inexpedient partition and distri- 
bution of power, between the State governments 
and the general Government, they can alter that 
distribution at will. If anything be found in the 
national Constitution, either by original provision, 
or subsequent interpretation, which ought not to be 
in it, the people know how to get rid of it. If any 
construction be established, unacceptable to them, 
so as to become, practically, a part of the Constitu- 
tion, they will amend it, at their own sovereign 
pleasure: but while the people choose to maintain 
it, as it is; while they are satisfied with it, and refuse 
to change it, who has given, or who can give, to the 
State legislatures a right to alter it, either by inter- 
ference, construction or otherwise ? . . . 

I profess. Sir, in my career, hitherto, to have kept 
steadily in view the prosperity and honor of the 
whole country, and the preservation of our Federal 
Union. It is to that Union we owe our safety at 
home, and our consideration and dignity abroad. 
It is to that Union that we are chiefly indebted for 
whatever makes us most proud of our country. 
That Union we reached only by the discipline of our 
virtues in the severe school of adversity. It had 
its origin in the necessities of disordered finance, 
prostrate commerce, and ruined credit. Under its 



DANIEL WEBSTER 1 75 

benign influences, these great interests immediately 
awoke, as from the dead, and sprang forth with new- 
ness of Ufe. Every year of its duration has teemed 
with fresh proofs of its utihty and its blessings; 
and, although our territory has stretched out wider 
and wider, and our population spread farther and 
farther, they have not outrun its protection or its 
benefits. It has been to us all a copious fountain 
of national, social, and personal happiness. 

I have not allowed myself. Sir, to look beyond the 
Union, to see what might lie hidden in the dark 
recess behind. I have not coolly weighed the chances 
of preserving hberty when the bonds that unite us 
together shall be broken asunder. I have not accus- 
tomed myself to hang over the precipice of Disunion, 
to see whether, with my short sight, I can fathom 
the depth of the abyss below ; nor could I regard 
him as a safe counselor in the affairs of this govern- 
ment, whose thoughts should be mainly bent on 
considering, not how the Union shall be best pre- 
served, but how tolerable might be the condition of 
the people when it shall be broken up and destroyed. 
While the Union lasts, we have high, exciting, gratify- 
ing prospects spread out before us, for us and our 
children. Beyond that I seek not to penetrate 
the veil. God grant that, in my day, at least, that 
curtain may not rise! God grant, that on my vision 
never may be opened what Hes behind! 

When my eyes shall be turned to behold, for the 



176 BEST AMERICAN ORATIONS 

last time, the sun in heaven, may I not see him shin- 
ing on the broken and dishonored fragments of a once 
glorious Union; on States dissevered, discordant, 
belligerent; on a land rent with civil feuds, or 
drenched, it may be, in fraternal blood ! Let their 
last feeble and lingering glance rather behold the 
gorgeous ensign of the republic, now known and 
honored throughout the earth, still full high ad- 
vanced, its arms and trophies streaming in their 
original luster, not a stripe erased or polluted, nor a 
single star obscured — bearing for its motto, no 
such miserable interrogatory, as What is all this 
worth ? Nor those other words of delusion and 
folly, Liberty first, and union afterwards — but every- 
where, spread all over in characters of living light, 
blazing on all its ample folds, as they float over the 
sea, and over the land, and in every wind under the 
whole heavens, that other sentiment, dear to every 
true American heart — Liberty and Union, now and 
forever, one and inseparable ! 



THOMAS HART BENTON 

1782-1858 



"Old Bullion," as he was called from his adherence to the 
theory of "hard money" instead of paper, was born in North 
Carolina, and went with his parents to Tennessee, where he 
grew up, was educated, and became a lawyer. But at the age 
of twenty-eight he went into the army, and in the War of 1812 
was aid on General Jackson's staff. He then went to St. 
Louis, practiced law, and edited a newspaper, and in 1821, 
so prominent had he become, he was sent to the United 
States Senate from Missouri, Here he remained until 185 1, 
and in 1853 was returned to Washington for two years as 
Congressman. His great work, " Thirty Years' Viev/," is a 
mine of historical and biographical record of the doings of 
Congress (1821-1856), while his voluminous "Abridgment 
of Debates in Congress" (i 789-1856), is a monument of care- 
ful, skillful, valuable labor. 

Benton was a forcible speaker, and, although not a man of 
the highest grade of intellect, was influential by reason of his 
usually sound views, his honesty, energy, and persistence. 
He was intimately and vigorously interested in the opening up 
of the West — Missouri, Oregon, and California — and was 
a sturdy supporter of his son-in-law, John C. Fremont, in 
his daring explorations of the continental interior and the 
Pacific coast ; yet when Fremont was Republican candidate for 
the presidency, Benton, as a Democrat, upheld Buchanan. 

His friendship with Jackson, both as General and as Presi- 
dent, was a great element in his career; and although there 
intervened an alienation of years between them, Benton sup- 
ported many of Jackson's acts, and in 1834 moved in the 
Senate a resolution to expunge from the record the censure 
passed upon the President for his veto of the United States 
Bank bill in 1832. As he relates in the speech (here given) his 
resolution was pending for three years; but, although opposed 
by the Southern Calhoun and Clay and the Northern 
Webster, Benton triumphed ; the censure was expunged. 



178 



EXPUNGING THE JACKSON 
CENSURE 

Mr. President: It is now three years since the 
resolve was adopted by the Senate, which it is my 
present motion to expunge from the journal. At the 
moment that this resolve was adopted, I gave notice 
of my intention to move to expunge it ; and then 
expressed my confident belief that the motion would 
eventually prevail. That expression of confidence 
was not an ebullition of vanity or a presumptuous 
calculation, intended to accelerate the event it affected 
to foretell. It was not a vain boast, or an idle assump- 
tion, but was the result of a deep conviction of the 
injustice done President Jackson, and a thorough 
reliance upon the justice of the American people. I 
felt that the President had been wronged ; and my 
heart told me that this wrong would be redressed ! 
The event proves that I was not mistaken. The 
question of expunging this resolution has been car- 
ried to the people, and their decision has been had 
upon it. They decide in favor of the expurgation; 
and their decision has been both made and mani- 
fested, and communicated to us in a great variety of 
ways. A great number of States have expressly 
instructed their senators to vote for this expurgation. 
179 



l8o BEST AMERICAN ORATIONS 

A very great majority of the States have elected 
senators and representatives to Congress, upon the 
express ground of favoring this expurgation. The 
Bank of the United States, which took the initiative 
in the accusation against the President, and furnished 
the material, and worked the machinery which was 
used against him, and which was then so powerful 
on this floor, has become more and more odious to the 
public mind, and musters now but a slender phalanx 
of friends in the two Houses of Congress. The late 
Presidential election furnishes additional evidence of 
public sentiment. The candidate, who was the friend 
of President Jackson, the supporter of his adminis- 
tration, and the avowed advocate for the expurga- 
tion, has received a large majority of the suffrages 
of the whole Union, and that after an express declara- 
tion of his sentiments on this precise point. The 
evidence of the public will, exhibited in all these 
forms, is too manifest to be mistaken, too explicit 
to require illustration, and too imperative to be dis- 
regarded. . . . 

Assuming, then, that we have ascertained the will 
of the people on this great question, the inquiry 
presents itself, how far the expression of that will 
ought to be conclusive of our action here. I hold 
that it ought to be binding and obligatory upon us. 
... I do not mean to reopen the case nor to recom- 
mence the argument. I leave that work to others, 
if any others choose to perform it. For myself, I 



THOMAS HART BENTON i8l 

am content ; and, dispensing with further argument, 
I shall call for judgment, and ask to have execution 
done, upon that unhappy journal, which the verdict 
of millions of freemen finds guilty of bearing on its 
face an untrue, illegal, and unconstitutional sentence 
of condemnation against the approved President of 
the republic. . . . 

The political existence of this great man now 
draws to a close. In little more than forty days he 
ceases to be an object of political hope to any, and 
should cease to be an object of political hate, or envy, 
to all. Whatever of motive the servile and time- 
serving might have found in his exalted station for 
raising the altar of adulation, and burning the incense 
of praise before him, that motive can no longer exist. 
The dispenser of the patronage of an empire, the chief 
of this great confederacy of States, is soon to be a 
private individual, stripped of all power to reward, 
or to punish. His own thoughts, as he has shown us 
in the concluding paragraph of that message which 
is to be the last of its kind that we shall ever receive 
from him, are directed to that beloved retirement 
from which he was drawn by the voice of millions of 
freemen, and to which he now looks for that interval 
of repose which age and infirmities require. Under 
these circumstances, he ceases to be a subject for the 
ebullition of the passions, and passes into a char- 
acter for the contemplation of history. 

Historically, then, shall I view him; and, limiting 



l82 BEST AMERICAN ORATIONS 

this view to his civil administration, I demand, where 
is there a chief magistrate of whom so much evil has 
been predicted, and from whom so much good has 
come ? Never has any man entered upon the chief 
magistracy of a country under such appaUing pre- 
dictions of ruin and woe ! never has any one been so 
pursued with direful prognostications ! never has 
any one been so beset and impeded by a powerful com- 
bination of political and moneyed confederates ! 
never has any one in any country where the admin- 
istration of justice has risen above the knife or the 
bowstring, been so lawlessly and shamelessly tried 
and condemned by rivals and enemies, without hear- 
ing, without defense, without the forms of law and 
justice ! History has been ransacked to find exam- 
ples of tyrants sufficiently odious to illustrate him by 
comparison. Language has been tortured to find 
epithets sufficiently strong to paint him in descrip- 
tion. Imagination has been exhausted in her efforts 
to deck him with revolting and inhuman attributes. 
Tyrant, despot, usurper ; destroyer of the liberties 
of his country ; rash, ignorant, imbecile ; endanger- 
ing the public peace with all foreign nations; destroy- 
ing domestic prosperity at home ; ruining all indus- 
try, all commerce, all manufactures ; annihilating 
confidence between man and man ; delivering up the 
streets of populous cities to grass and weeds, and the 
wharves of commercial towns to the encumbrance 
of decaying vessels ; depriving labor of all reward ; 



THOMAS HART BENTON 183 

depriving industry of all employment ; destroying 
the currency ; plunging an innocent and happy 
people from the summit of felicity to the depths of 
misery, want, and despair. Such is the faint outline 
followed up by actual condemnation of the appalling 
denunciations daily uttered against this one man, 
from the moment he became an object of political 
competition, down to the conclucUng moment of his 
political existence. 

The sacred voice of inspiration has told us that 
there is a time for all things. There certainly has 
been a time for every e\dl that human nature admits 
of to be vaticinated of President Jackson's adminis- 
tration ; equally certain the time has now come for 
all rational and well-disposed people to compare the 
predictions with the facts, and to ask themselves if 
these calamitous prognostications have been verified 
by events? Have we peace, or war, with foreign 
nations? Certainly, we have peace with all the 
world ! peace with all its benign, and felicitous, and 
beneficent influences ! Are we respected, or despised 
abroad? Certainly the American name never was 
more honored throughout the four quarters of the 
globe than in this very moment. Do we hear of 
indignity or outrage in any quarter ? of merchants 
robbed in foreign ports ? of vessels searched on the 
high seas? of American citizens impressed into 
foreign service ? of the national flag insulted any- 
where ? On the contrary, we see former wrongs 



184 BEST AMERICAN ORATIONS 

repaired ; no new ones inflicted. France pays 
twenty-five millions of francs for spoliations com- 
mitted thirty years ago ; Naples pays two millions 
one hundred thousand ducats for wTongs of the same 
date ; Denmark pays six hundred and fifty thousand 
rix-dollars f or wrongs done a quarter of a century ago; 
Spain engages to pay twelve millions of reals vellon 
for injuries of fifteen years' date ; and Portugal, 
the last in the list of former aggressors, admits her 
liability and only waits the adjustment of details 
to close her account by adequate indemnity. So 
far from war, insult, contempt, and spoUation from 
abroad, this denounced administration has been the 
season of peace and good-will and the auspicious 
era of universal reparation. So far from suffering 
injury at the hands of foreign powers, our merchants 
have received indemnities for all former injuries. 
It has been the day of accounting, of settlement, and 
of retribution. The total list of arrearages, extend- 
ing through four successive previous administrations, 
has been closed and settled up. The wrongs done 
to commerce for thirty years back, and under so 
many different Presidents, and indemnities withheld 
from all, have been repaired and paid over under 
the beneficent and glorious administration of Presi- 
dent Jackson. . . . 

At home the most gratifying picture presents itself 
to the view: The pubhc debt paid off; taxes reduced 
one-half; the completion of the public defense sys- 



THOMAS HART BENTON 1S5 

tematically commenced; the compact with Georgia, 
uncomplied with since 1802, now carried into effect, 
and her soil ready to be freed, as her jurisdiction has 
been deHvered, from the presence and incumbrance 
of an Indian population. Mississippi and Alabama, 
Georgia, Tennessee and North Carolina, Ohio, In- 
diana, IlHnois, Missouri and Arkansas, in a word, all 
the States encumbered with an Indian population 
have been reHeved from that incumbrance; and the 
Indians themselves have been transferred to new and 
permanent homes, every way better adapted to 
the enjoyment of their existence, the preservation of 
their rights, and the improvement of their condition. 
The currency is not ruined ! On the contrary, 
seventy-five milKons of specie in the country is a 
spectacle never seen before, and is the barrier of the 
people against the designs of any banks which may 
attempt to suspend payments, and to force a dis- 
honored paper currency upon the community. . . . 
Domestic industry is not paralyzed, confidence is 
not destroyed, factories are not stopped, workmen are 
not mendicants for bread, and employment credit is 
not extinguished, prices have not sunk, grass is not 
growing in the streets of populous cities, the wharves 
are not lumbered with decaying vessels, columns of 
curses rising from the bosoms of a ruined and ago- 
nized people, are not ascending to heaven against 
the destroyer of a nation's felicity and prosperity. 
On the contrary, the reverse of all this is true ! and 



l86 BEST AMERICAN ORATIONS 

true to a degree that astonishes and bewilders the 
senses. . . . 

From President Jackson the country has first 
learned the true theory and practical intent of the 
Constitution, in giving to the Executive a quaUfied 
negative on the legislative power of Congress. Far 
from being an odious, dangerous, or kingly preroga- 
tive, this power, as vested in the President, is nothing 
but a qualified copy of the famous veto power vested 
in the Tribunes of the People among the Romans, 
and intended to suspend the passage of a law until 
the people themselves should have time to consider it. 
The qualified veto of the President destroys nothing ; 
it only delays the passage of a law, and refers it to 
the people for their consideration and decision. It is 
the reference of a law, not to a committee of the 
House, or of the whole House, but to the committee 
of the whole Union. It is a recommitment of the 
bill to the people, for them to examine and consider; 
and if, upon this examination, they are content to 
pass it, it will pass at the next session. The delay of 
a few months is the only effect of a veto, in a case 
where the people shall ultimately approve a law; 
where they do not approve it, the interposition of the 
veto is the barrier which saves them the adoption 
of a law, the repeal of which might afterwards be 
almost impossible. The qualified negative is, there- 
fore, a beneficent power, intended as General Hamil- 
ton expressly declares in the "Federalist," to protect, 



THOMAS HART BENTON 187 

first, the executive department from the encroach- 
ments of the legislative department; and, secondly, 
to preserve the people from hasty, dangerous, or 
criminal legislation on the part of their representa- 
tives. This is the design and intention of the veto 
power; and the fear expressed by General Hamilton 
was, that Presidents, so far from exercising it too 
often, would not exercise it as often as the safety of 
the people required; that they might lack the moral 
courage to stake themselves in opposition to a favorite 
measure of the majority of the two Houses of Con- 
gress; and thus deprive the people, in many instances, 
of their right to pass upon a bill before it becomes a 
final law. The cases in which President Jackson has 
exercised the veto power have shown the soundness of 
these observations. No ordinary President would 
have staked himself against the Bank of the United 
States and the two Houses of Congress in 1832. It 
required President Jackson to confront that power — 
to stem that torrent — to stay the progress of that 
charter, and to refer it to the people for their decision. 
His moral courage was equal to the crisis. He 
arrested the charter until it could be got to the 
people, and they have arrested it forever. . . . 

To detail specific acts which adorn the adminis- 
tration of President Jackson, and illustrate the in- 
tuitive sagacity of his intellect, the firmness of his 
mind, his disregard of personal popularity, and his 
entire devotion to the public good, would be incon- 



l88 BEST AMERICAN ORATIONS 

sistent with this rapid sketch, intended merely to 
present general views, and not to detail single actions, 
howsoever worthy they may be of a splendid page in 
the volume of history. But how^ can we pass over the 
great measure of the removal of the public moneys 
from the Bank of the United States in the autumn 
of 1833 — that wise, heroic, and masterly measure of 
prevention which has rescued an empire from the 
fangs of a merciless, revengeful, greedy, insatiate, 
implacable, moneyed power ? . . . 

The Treasury order for excluding paper money 
from the land offices is another wise measure, origi- 
nating in an enlightened forecast, and preventing 
great mischiefs. The President foresaw the evils 
of suffering a thousand streams of paper money, 
issuing from a thousand different banks, to discharge 
themselves on the national domain. He foresaw 
that, if these currents were allowed to run their 
course, the public lands would be sw^pt away, the 
Treasury would be filled with irredeemable paper, a 
vast number of banks must be broken by their folly, 
and the cry set up that nothing but a national bank 
could regulate the currency. He stopped the course 
of these streams of paper; and in so doing, has saved 
the country from a great calamity, and excited anew 
the machinations of those whose schemes of gain and 
mischief have been disappointed, and who had 
counted on a new edition of panic and pressure. . . . 

The difi&culty with France: What an instance it 



THOMAS HART BENTON 189 

presents of the superior sagacity of President Jack- 
son over all the commonplace politicians who beset 
and impede his administration at home ! That 
difficulty, inflamed and aggravated by domestic 
faction, wore, at one time, a portentous aspect; the 
skill, firmness, elevation of purpose, and manly 
frankness of the President avoided the danger, 
accompUshed the object, commanded the admiration 
of Europe, and retained the friendship of France. 
He conducted the deUcate affair to a successful and 
mutually honorable issue. All is amicably and 
happily terminated, leaving not a wound, nor even a 
scar, behind, — leaving the Frenchman and American 
on the ground on which they have stood for fifty 
years, and should forever stand — the ground of 
friendship, respect, good-will, and mutual wishes for 
the honor, happiness, and prosperity of each other. 

But why this specification? So beneficent and so 
glorious has been the administration of this Presi- 
dent, that where to begin, and where to end, in the 
enumeration of great measures, would be the em- 
barrassment of him who has his eulogy to make. 
He came into office the first of generals ; he goes out 
the first of statesmen. His civil competitors have 
shared the fate of his miUtary opponents; and Wash- 
ington city has been to the American poHticians who 
have assailed him, what Orleans was to the British 
generals who attacked his lines. Repulsed ! driven 
back ! discomfited ! crushed ! has been the fate of all 



I go BEST AMERICAN ORATIONS 

assailants, foreign and domestic, civil and military. 
At home and abroad, the impress of his genius and 
of his character is felt. He has impressed upon the 
age in which he lives the stamp of his arms, of his 
diplomacy, and of his domestic policy. In a word, 
so transcendent have been the merits of his adminis- 
tration that they have operated a miracle upon the 
minds of his most inveterate opponents. He has 
expunged their objections to military chieftains ! He 
has shown them that they were mistaken; that 
miUtary men were not the dangerous rulers they had 
imagined, but safe and prosperous conductors of the 
vessel of state. He has changed their fear into 
love. With visible signs they admit their error, and 
instead of deprecating they now invoke the reign of 
chieftains. They labored hard to procure a military 
successor to the present incumbent, and if their love 
goes on increasing at the same rate, the republic 
may be put to the expense of periodical w^ars, to 
breed a perpetual succession of these chieftains to 
rule over them and their posterity forever. 

To drop this irony, which the inconsistency of mad 
opponents has provoked, and to return to the plain 
delineations of historical painting, the mind instinc- 
tively dwells on the vast and unprecedented popular- 
ity of this President. Great is the influence, great 
the powTr, greater than any man ever before pos- 
sessed in our America, which he has acquired over 
the public mind. And how has he acquired it? 



THOMAS HART BENTON 191 

Not by the arts of intrigue, or the juggHng tricks of 
diplomacy; not by undermining rivals or sacrific- 
ing public interests for the gratification of classes or 
individuals. But he has acquired it, first, by the 
exercise of an intuitive sagacity which, leaving all 
book learning at an immeasurable distance behind, 
has always enabled him to adopt the right remedy 
at the right time, and to conquer soonest when the 
men of forms and office thought him most near to 
ruin and despair. Next, by a moral courage, which 
knew no fear when the pubHc good beckoned him to 
go on. Last, and chiefest, he has acquired it by an 
open honesty of purpose, which knew no conceal- 
ments; by a straightforwardness of action, which 
disdained the forms of office, and the arts of intrigue; 
by a disinterestedness of motive, which knew no 
selfish or sordid calculation; a devotedness of pa- 
triotism, which staked everything personal on the 
issue of every measure which the public welfare re- 
quired him to adopt. By these qualities, and these 
means, he has acquired his prodigious popularity 
and his transcendent influence over the pubhc mind; 
and if there are any who envy that influence and popu- 
larity, let them envy also, and emulate, if they can, 
the qualities and means by which they were ac- 
quired. . . . 

Sir, I think it right, in approaching the termina- 
tion of his great question, to present this faint and 
rapid sketch of the brilHant, beneficent, and glorious 



192 BEST AMERICAN ORATIONS 

administration of President Jackson. It is not for 
me to attempt to do it justice; it is not for ordinary 
men to attempt its history. . . . The contempo- 
raries of such events are not the hands to describe 
them. Time must first do its office — must silence 
the passions, remove the actors, develop consequences, 
and canonize all that is sacred to honor, patriotism, 
and glory. In after ages the historic genius of our 
America shall produce the writers which the subject 
demands — men far removed from the contests of 
this day, who will know how to estimate this great 
epoch, and how to acquire an immortality for their 
own names by painting, with a master's hand, the 
immortal events of the patriot President's life. 
V And now. Sir, I finish the task which, three years 
ago, I imposed on myself. Solitary and alone, and 
amidst the jeers and taunts of my opponents, I put 
this ball in motion. The people have taken it up, 
and rolled it forward, and I am no longer anything 
but a unit in the vast mass which now propels it. 
In the name of that mass I speak. I demand the 
execution of the edict of the people; I demand the 
expurgation of that sentence which the voice of a 
few senators, and the power of their confederate, the 
Bank of the United States, have caused to be placed 
on the journal of the Senate; and which the voice 
of millions of freemen has ordered to be expunged 
from it. 



CHARLES SUMNER 

1811-1874 



Here was an accomplished orator. Sumner's Harvard 
graduation, admission to the bar at twenty-three, and three 
years ' pursuance of legal science in Europe gave him — with his 
classical and historical lore and oratorical power — a grand 
foundation. But he liked practicing law less than expounding 
it, lecturing to Harvard law-students, editing and contributing 
to legal periodicals, etc., and he was sought for public orations. 

His most famous early address was on " The True Gran- 
deur of Nations" (July 4, 1845), when our government was in 
contention both with Mexico and Great Britain, and the war- 
spirit was abroad. He declared war against war, showing a 
higher plane for the nations. This spirited and scholarly ad- 
dress made great impression, both here and abroad. It was 
published several times, notably in 1870, enlarged by Sumner 
with further illustrations, notes, etc. In this form it is well 
worth study in our "strenuous" day, and may be found in 
Sumner's "Life and Works" and in a separate issue, both 
published by Lothrop, Lee, and Shepard Co., Boston. 

Such appeal to the ethical was characteristic. It led to 
Sumner's reluctantly entering politics, in advocacy of the anti- 
slavery sentiment. In 1848 defeated as Free-soil candidate 
for Congress, his high character, learning, and eloquence made 
him Webster's successor as senator from Massachusetts in 
1851. Here he remained until his death in 1874. 

Sumner's confidence in his own uprightness and opinions 
made him intolerant ; his passionate hatred of slavery incited 
him to exasperating vehemence. During the Kansas agitation 
in 1856, after one of his invectives, he was assaulted, sitting 
in the Senate Chamber, by Preston S. Brooks of South Caro- 
lina, and was three years recovering from it — if, indeed, he 
ever did. This aroused indignation throughout the North, 
and doubtless served Sumner's causes effectively. 

After the war and emancipation, Sumner's peculiarities in- 
creased, in disagreements with the Republican leaders and with 
nearly everybody. His advocacy of Greeley's Democratic 
Presidential candidacy in 1872 severed him from his old asso- 
ciates. But he was a great man — scholar, thinker, legislator, 
orator, of sterling integrity and noble ideals ; a potential ele- 
ment in that era of turbulent conflict and majestic outcome. 



194 



THE TRUE GRANDEUR OF NATIONS 

In accordance with uninterrupted usage, on this 
Sabbath of the Nation, we have put aside our daily 
cares, and seized a respite from the never-ending 
toils of life, to meet in gladness and congratulation, 
mindful of the blessings transmitted from the Past, 
mindful also, I trust, of our duties to the Present and 
the Future. 

All hearts turn first to the Fathers of the Repub- 
lic. Their venerable forms rise before us, in the 
procession of successive generations. They come 
from the frozen rock of Plymouth, from the wasted 
bands of Raleigh, from the heavenly companion- 
ship of Penn, from the anxious councils of the Revo- 
lution, — from all those fields of sacrifice, where, in 
obedience to the spirit of their age, they sealed their 
devotion to duty with their blood. . . . Honor 
to the memory of our fathers! May the turf lie 
lightly on their sacred graves! Not in words only, 
but in deeds also, let us testify our reverence for 
their name, imitating what in them was lofty, pure, 
and good, learning from them to bear hardship and 
privation. May we, who now reap in strength 
what they sowed in weakness, augment the inheri- 
195 



196 BEST AMERICAN ORATIONS 

tance we have received! To this end, we must not 
fold our hands in slumber, nor abide content with 
the past. To each generation is appointed its pe- 
culiar task ; nor does the heart which responds to the 
call of duty find rest except in the grave. . . . 
Avoiding, then, all exultation in the abounding 
prosperity of the land, and in that freedom whose 
influence is widening to the uttermost circles of the 
earth, I would turn attention to the character of our 
country, and humbly endeavor to learn what must 
be done that the Republic may best secure the wel- 
fare of the people committed to its care, — that it 
may perform its part in the world's history, — that it 
may fulfill the aspirations of generous hearts, — and, 
practicing that righteousness which exalteth a nation, 
attain to the elevation of True Grandeur. 

With tliis aim, and believing that I can in no other 
way so fitly fulfill the trust reposed in me to-day, I 
purpose to consider what, in our age, are the true ob- 
jects of national ambition, — what is truly National 
Honor, National Glory, — what is the true gran- 
deur OF NATIONS. . . . The subject may be novel 
on an occasion Hke the present; but it is compre- 
hensive, and of transcendent importance. It raises 
us to the contemplation of things not temporary or 
local, but belonging to all ages and countries, — things 
lofty as Truth, universal as Humanity. Nay, more; 
it practically concerns the general welfare, not only 
of our own cherislied Republic, but of the whole 



CHARLES SUMNER 197 

Federation of Nations. It has an urgent interest 
from transactions in which we are now unhappily 
involved. By an act of unjust legislation, extending 
our power over Texas, peace with Mexico is endan- 
gered, — while, by petulant assertion of a disputed 
claim to a remote territory beyond the Rocky 
Mountains, ancient fires of hostile strife are kindled 
anew on the hearth of our mother country. Mexico 
and England both avow the determination to vindi- 
cate what is called the National Honor; and our 
Government calmly contemplates the dread Arbit- 
rament of War, provided it cannot obtain what is 
called an honorable peace. . . . 

A war with Mexico would be mean and cowardly; 
with England it would be bold at least, though 
parricidal. The heart sickens at the murderous 
attack upon an enemy distracted by civil feud, weak 
at home, impotent abroad; but it recoils in horror 
from the deadly shock between children of a common 
ancestry, speaking the same language, soothed in 
infancy by the same words of love and tenderness, 
and hardened into vigorous manhood under the 
bracing influence of institutions instinct with the 
same vital breath of freedom. . . . 

It is true that in us are impulses unhappily tend- 
ing to strife. Propensities possessed in common 
with the beast, if not subordinated to what in man is 
human, almost divine, will break forth in outrage. 
This is the predominance of the animal. Hence 



198 BEST AMERICAN ORATIONS 

wars and fightings, with the false glory which crowns 
such barbarism. But the true civiHzation of na- 
tions, as of individuals, is determined by the extent 
to which these evil dispositions are restrained. Nor 
does the teacher ever more truly perform his high 
office than when, recognizing the supremacy of the 
moral and intellectual, he calls upon nations, as 
upon individuals, to declare independence of the 
bestial, to abandon practices founded on this part 
of our nature, and in every way to beat down that 
brutal spirit which is the Genius of War. In making 
this appeal, he will be startled as he learns, that, 
while the municipal law of each Christian nation, 
discarding the Arbitrament of Force, provides a 
judicial tribunal for the determination of controver- 
sies between individuals. International Law expressly 
establishes the Arbitrament of War for the determi- 
nation of controversies between nations. . . . 

I would now define the evil which I arraign. War 
is a public armed contest between nations, under the 
sanction of International Law, to establish justice 
between them: as, for instance, to determine a dis- 
puted boundary, the title to territory, or a claim for 
damages. 

This definition is confined to contests between 
nations. ... It is unreasonable to suppose that 
war can arise in the present age, under the sanctions 
of International Law, except to determine an asserted 
right. Whatever its character in periods of barbar- 



CHARLES SUMNER 199 

ism, or when invoked to repel an incursion of robbers 
or pirates, ''enemies of the human race," war be- 
comes in our day, among all the nations parties to 
existing International Law, simply a mode of litiga- 
tion, or of deciding a lis pendens. It is a mere trial 
of right, an appeal for justice to force. . . . 

After considering, in succession, first, the character 
of war, secondly, the miseries it produces, and, thirdly, 
its utter and pitiful insufficiency, as a mode of de- 
termining justice, we shall be able to decide, strictly 
and logically, whether it must not be ranked as 
crime, from which no true honor can spring to 
individuals or nations. To appreciate this evil, 
and the necessity for its overthrow, it will be our 
duty, fourthly, to consider in succession the various 
prejudices by which it is sustained, ending with that 
prejudice, so gigantic and all-embracing, at whose 
command uncounted sums are madly diverted from 
purposes of peace to preparations for war. The whole 
subject is infinitely practical, while the concluding 
division shows how the public treasury may be re- 
lieved, and new means secured for human advance- 
ment. 

I. First, as to the essential character and root of 
war, or that part of our nature whence it proceeds. 
. . . The idea rises to the mind at once, that war is 
a resort to brute force, where nations strive to over- 
power each other. Reason, and the divine part of 
our nature, where alone we differ from the beast, 



200 BEST AMERICAN ORATIONS 

where alone we approach the Divinity, where alone 
are the elements of tha.t justice which is the professed 
object of war, are rudely dethroned. For the time 
men adopt the nature of beasts, emulating their 
ferocity, like them rejoicing in blood, and with lion's 
paw clutching an asserted right. Though in more 
recent days this character is somewhat disguised by 
the skill and knowledge employed, war is still the 
same, only more destructive from the genius and 
intellect which have become its servants. The 
primitive poets, in the unconscious simplicity of the 
world's childhood, make tliis boldly apparent. The 
heroes of Homer are likened to animals in ungovern- 
able fury, or to things devoid of reason or affection. 
Menelaus presses his way through the crowd ''like 
a wild beast." Sarpedon is aroused against the 
Argives, "as a lion against the crooked-horned 
oxen," and afterwards rushes forward ''like a lion 
nurtured on the mountains, for a long time famished 
for want of flesh, but whose courage impels him to 
attack even the well-guarded sheepf old." . . . 

From early fields of modern hterature, as from 
those of antiquity, might be gathered similar illus- 
trations, showing the unconscious degradation of the 
soldier, in vain pursuit of justice, renouncing the 
human character, to assume that of brute. Bayard, 
the exemplar of chivalry, with a name always on the 
lips of its votaries, was described by the qualities 
of beasts, being, according to his admirers, raw in 



CHARLES SUMNER 20I 

attack, wild-hoar in defense, and wolf in flight. Henry 
the Fifth, as represented by our own Shakespeare, 
in the spirit-stirring appeal to his troops, exclaims: — 

"When the blast of war blows in our ears, 
Then imitate the action of the tiger. ^^ 

This is plain and frank, revealing the true character 
of war. 

I need not dwell on the moral debasement that must 
ensue. Passions, Hke so many bloodhounds, are 
unleashed and suffered to rage. Crimes filHng our 
prisons stalk abroad in the soldier's garb, unwhipped 
of justice. Murder, robbery, rape, arson, are the 
sports of this fiendish Saturnalia, when 

"The gates of mercy shall be all shut up, 
And the fleshed soldier, rough and hard of heart, 
In liberty of bloody hand shall range 
With conscience wide as hell.'" . . . 

II. The immediate effect of war is to sever all 
relations of friendship and commerce between the 
belligerent nations, and every individual thereof, 
impressing upon each citizen or subject the character 
of enemy. . . . 

This is Httle compared with what must follow. It 
is but the first portentous shadow of disastrous eclipse, 
twilight usher of thick darkness, covering the whole 
heavens with a pall, broken only by the lightnings of 
battle and siege. 



202 BEST AMERIC.\N ORATIONS 

Such horrors redden the historic page, while, to 
the scandal of humanity, they never want liistorians 
with feelings kindred to those by which they are 
inspired. The demon that draws the sword also 
guides the pen. The favorite chronicler of modern 
Europe, Froissart, discovers his sympathies in his 
Prologue, where, with something of apostleship, he 
announces his purpose, "that the honorable enter- 
prises and noble adventures and feats of arms which 
happened in the wars of France and England be 
notably registered and put in perpetual memory," 
and then proceeds to bestow his equal admiration 
upon bravery and cunning, upon the courtesy which 
pardoned as upon the rage which caused the flow of 
blood in torrents, dwelling with especial delight on 
"beautiful incursions, beautiful rescues, beautiful 
feats of arms, and beautiful prowesses " ; and wanton- 
ing in pictures of cities assaulted, "which, being soon 
gained by force, were robbed, and men and women 
and children put to the sword without mercy, while 
the churches were burnt and violated." This was 
in a barbarous age. But popular writers in our own 
day, dazzled by false ideas of greatness, at which 
reason and humanity blush, do not hesitate to dwell 
on similar scenes even with rapture and eulogy. 
The humane soul of Wilberforce, which sighed that 
England's "bloody laws sent many unprepared into 
another world," could hail the slaughter of Water- 
loo, by which thousands were hurried into eternity 



CHARLES SUMNER 203 

on the Sabbath he held so holy, as a "splendid 
victory." . . . 

But wasted lands, famished cities, and slaughtered 
armies are not all that is contained in ''the purple 
testament of bleeding war." Every soldier is 
connected with others, as all of you, by dear ties of 
kindred, love, and friendship. He has been sternly 
summoned from the embrace of family. To him 
there is perhaps an aged mother, who fondly hoped 
to lean her bending years on his more youthful form; 
perhaps a wife, whose life is just entwined insepar- 
ably with his, now condemned to wasting despair; 
perhaps sisters, brothers. As he falls on the field 
of war, must not all these rush with his blood? 
But who can measure the distress that radiates as 
from a bloody sun, penetrating innumerable homes? 
Who can give the gauge and dimensions of this 
infinite sorrow? . . . 

III. But all these miseries are to no purpose. War 
is utterly ineffectual to secure or advance its pro- 
fessed object. The wretchedness it entails con- 
tributes to no end, helps to estabhsh no right, and 
therefore in no respect determines justice between 
the contending nations. 

The fruitlessness and vanity of war appear in the 
great conflicts by which the w^orld has been lacer- 
ated. After long struggle, where each nation inflicts 
and receives incalculable injury, peace is gladly ob- 
tained on the basis of the condition before the war, 



204 



BEST AMERICAN ORATIONS 



known as the status ante helium. I cannot illus- 
trate this futility better than by the famiUar example 
— humiliating to both countries — of our last war 
with Great Britain, where the professed object was 
to obtain a renunciation of the British claim, so 
defiantly asserted, to impress our seamen. . . . 
The National Government appointed commissioners 
to treat for peace, with these specific instructions: 
''Your first duty will be to conclude a peace with 
Great Britain; and you are authorized to do it, in 
case you obtain a satisfactory stipulation against 
impressment, one w^hich shall secure under our flag 
protection to the crew. ... If this encroachment 
of Great Britain is not provided against, the United 
States have appealed to arms in vain.'' . . . Yet the 
treaty that restored to us once more the blessings of 
peace, so rashly cast away, but now hailed with 
intoxication of joy, contained no allusion to impress- 
ment, nor did it provide for the surrender of a single 
American sailor detained in the British navy. Thus, 
by the confession of our own Government, ''the 
United States had appealed to arms in vain.'' These 
important words are not mine; they are words of 
the country. 

All this is the natural result of an appeal to war 
for the determination of justice. Justice implies 
the exercise of the judgment. Now war not only 
supersedes the judgment, but delivers over the pend- 
ing question to superiority oi force, or to chance. 



CHARLES SUMNER 



205 



Superior force may end in conquest; this is the 
natural consequence; but it cannot adjudicate any 
right. . . . But the battle is not always to the strong. 
Superiority of force is often checked by the prover- 
bial contingencies of war. Especially are such con- 
tingencies revealed in rankest absurdity, where 
nations, as is the acknowledged custom, without 
regard to their respective forces, whether weaker or 
stronger, voluntarily appeal to this mad umpirage. 
Who beforehand can measure the currents of the 
heady fight? In common language, we confess the 
'' chances" of battle; and soldiers devoted to this 
harsh vocation yet call it a "game." . . . 

Remember, fellow-citizens, that this criminal and 
impious custom [illustrated by the medieval Private 
Wars, the Trial by Combat, and the Duel — all now 
generally abohshed], which all condemn in the case 
of individuals, is openly avowed by our own country, 
and by other countries of the great Christian Federa- 
tion, nay, that it is expressly established by Inter- 
national Law, as the proper rnode of determining 
justice between nations, — while the feats of hardi- 
hood by which it is waged, and the triumphs of its 
fields, are exalted beyond all other labors, whether 
of learning, industry, or benevolence, as the well- 
spring of Glory. Alas! upon our own heads be the 
judgment of barbarism which we pronounce upon 
those that have gone before ! . . . 

What has taught you, O man ! thus to find glory 



2o6 BEST AMERICAxN ORATIONS 

in an act, performed by a nation, which you condemn 
as a crime or a barbarism, when committed by an 
individual? In what vain conceit of wisdom and 
virtue do you find this incongruous morahty ? Where 
is it declared that God, who is no respecter of per- 
sons, is a respecter of multitudes ? Whence do you 
draw these partial laws of an impartial God ? Man is 
immortal; but Nations are mortal. Man has a 
higher destiny than Nations. Can Nations be less 
amenable to the supreme moral law ? . . . 

IV. I am now brought to review the obstacles 
encountered by those who, according to the injunction 
of St. Augustine, would make war on War, and slay 
it with the word. . . . 

One of the most important is the prejudice from 
belief in its necessity. When War is called a neces- 
sity, it is meant, of course, that its object can be 
attained in no other way. Now I think it has al- 
ready appeared, with distinctness approaching demon- 
stration, that the professed object of War, which is 
justice between nations, is in no respect promoted 
by War, — that force is not justice, nor in any way 
conducive to justice, — that the eagles of victory 
are the emblems of successful force only, and not of 
established right. Justice is obtained solely by the 
exercise of reason and judgment; but these are 
silent in the din of arms. ... If nations can agree 
in solemn provisions of International Law to estab- 
lish War as Arbiter of Justice, they can also agree 



CHARLES SUMNER 207 

to abolish this arbitrament, and to estabhsh peaceful 
substitutes, — precisely as similar substitutes are 
established by Municipal Law to determine con- 
troversies among individuals. A system of Arbi- 
tration may be instituted, or a Congress of Nations, 
charged with the high duty of organizing an Ulti- 
mate Tribunal, instead of ''these battles." To do 
this, the will only is required. Let it not be said, 
then, that war is a necessity. . . . 

Another prejudice is founded on the practice of 
nations, past and present. There is no crime or 
enormity in morals which may not find the support 
of human example, often on an extended scale. But 
it will not be urged in our day that we are to look 
for a standard of duty in the conduct of vain, fal- 
lible, mistaken man. Not by any subtile alchemy 
can man transmute Wrong into Right. Because 
War is according to the practice of the world, it 
does not follow that it is right. . . . 

Often is it said that we need not be wiser than our 
fathers. Rather strive to excel our fathers. What 
in them was good imitate; but do not bind ourselves, 
as in chains of Fate, by their imperfect example. In 
all modesty be it said, we have lived to little purpose, 
if we are not wiser than the generations that have 
gone before. . . . 

There is a topic which I approach with diffidence, 
but in the spirit of frankness. It is the influence 
which War, though condemned by Christ, has de- 
rived from the Christian Church. . , . 



2o8 BEST AMERICAN ORATIONS 

The Christian Church, after the early centuries, 
failed to discern the peculiar spiritual beauty of the 
faith it professed. Like Constantine, it found new 
incentive to War in the religion of Peace; and such 
is its character, even in our own day. . . . Well 
may we marvel that now, in an age of civilization, 
the God of Battles should be invoked. . . . Mars 
is not the God of Christians; he is not Our Father in 
Heaven; to him can ascend no prayers of Christian 
thanksgiving, no words of Christian worship, no 
pealing anthem to swell the note of praise. And yet 
Christ and Mars are still brought into fellowship, 
even interchanging pulpits. . . . 

It will not be doubted that this strange and un- 
blessed conjunction of the Church with War has no 
little influence in blinding the world to the truth, too 
slowly recognized, that the whole custom of war is 
contrary to Christianity. . . . 

From prejudices engendered by the Church I pass 
to prejudices engendered by the army itself, having 
their immediate origin in military life, but unfor- 
tunately diffusing themselves throughout the com- 
munity, in widening though less apparent circles. I 
allude directly to what is called the Point of Honor, 
early child of Chivalry, living representative of its 
barbarism. It is difficult to define what is so evanes- 
cent, so impalpable, so chimerical, so unreal, and yet 
which exercises such fiendish power over many men, 
and controls the intercourse of nations. . . . 



CHARLES SUMNER 209 

And when is honor at stake? This inquiry opens 
again the argument with which I commenced, and 
with which I hope to close. Honor can be at stake 
only where justice and beneficence are at stake; it 
can never depend on any hasty word of anger or 
folly, not even if followed by vulgar violence. True 
honor appears in the dignity of the human soul, in 
that highest moral and intellectual excellence which 
is the nearest approach to quahties we reverence as 
attributes of God. Our community frowns with in- 
dignation upon the prof anen ess of the duel, having 
its rise in this irrational point of honor. Are you 
aware that you indulge the same sentiment on a 
gigantic scale, when you recognize this very point of 
honor as a proper apology for War? We have 
already seen that justice is in no respect promoted 
by War. Is True Honor promoted where justice 
is not? . . . The rule of honor is founded in the 
imagined necessity of resenting by force a supposed 
injury, whether of word or act. Admit the injury 
received, seeming to sully the character; is it wiped 
away by any force, and descent to the brutal level 
of its author? "Could I wipe your blood from my 
conscience as easily as this insult from my face," 
said a marshal of France, greater on this occasion 
than on any field of fame, ''I would lay you dead at 
my feet." ... 

Thank God ! the age of chivalry is gone; but it 
cannot be allowed to prolong its fanaticism of honor 



2IO BEST AMERICAN ORATIONS 

into our day. This must remain with the lances, 
swords, and daggers by which it was guarded, or 
appear, if it insists, only with its inseparable American 
companions, bowie-knife, pistol, and rifle. . . . 

There is one other consideration, yielding to none 
in importance, — perhaps more important than all, 
being at once cause and effect, — the cause of strong 
prejudice in favor of War, and the effect of this 
prejudice. I refer to Preparations for War in time 
of Peace. Here is an immense practical evil. . . . 

I shall not dwell upon the fearful cost of War itself. 
That is present in the mountainous accumulations of 
debt, piled like Ossa upon Pelion, with which civili- 
zation is pressed to earth. . . . The public debt of 
Great Britain in 1842 reached to $3,827,833,102, the 
growth of War since 1688. This amount is equal to 
two-thirds of all the harvest of gold and silver yielded 
by Spanish America, including Mexico and Peru, 
from the discovery of our hemisphere by Christo- 
pher Columbus to the beginning of the present 
century, as calculated by Humboldt. For the six 
years preceding 1842, the average payment for 
interest on this debt was $141,645,157 annually. 
If we add to this sum the further annual outlay of 
$66,780,817 for the army, navy, and ordnance, we 
shall have $208,425,974 as the annual tax of the 
English people, to pay for former wars and prepare 
for new. During this same period, an annual 
appropriation of $24,858,442 was sufficient for the 



CHARLES SUMNER 211 

entire civil service. Thus War consumed ninety 
cents of every dollar pressed by heavy taxation from 
the EngHsh people. What fabulous monster, what 
chimera dire, ever raged with a maw so ravenous? 
The remaining ten cents sufficed to maintain the 
splendor of the throne, the administration of justice, 
and diplomatic relations with foreign powers, — in 
short, all the more legitimate objects of a nation. 

Thus much for the general cost of War. Let us 
now look exclusively at the Preparations for War in 
time of Peace. It is one of the miseries of War, that 
even in Peace its evils continue to be felt beyond any 
other by which suffering humanity is oppressed. . . . 
It is difficult, if not impossible, to arrive at any exact 
estimate of these Preparations, ranging under four 
different heads, — Standing Army, Navy, Fortifica- 
tions, and MiUtia, or irregular troops. . . . 

Colossal as are European expenditures for these 
purposes, they are still greater among us in proportion 
to other expenses of the National Government. 

It appears that the average annual expenses of 
the National Government, for the six years ending 
1840, exclusive of payments on account of debt, were 
$26,474,892. Of this sum, the average appropriation 
each year for military and naval purposes amounted 
to $21,328,903, being eighty per cent. Yes, — of all 
the annual appropriations by the National Govern- 
ment, eighty cents in every dollar were applied in this 
unproductive manner, The remaining twenty cents 



212 BEST AMERICAM ORATIONS 

sufficed to maintain the Government in all its 
branches, Executive, Legislative, and Judicial, — 
the administration of justice, our relations with 
foreign nations, the post-office, and all the light- 
houses, which, in happy, useful contrast with the 
forts, shed their cheerful signals over the rough 
waves beating upon our long and indented coast, 
from the Bay of Fundy to the mouth of the Missis- 
sippi. The relative expenditures of nations for 
MiUtary Preparations in time of Peace, exclusive 
of payments on account of debts, when accurately 
understood, must surprise the advocates of economy 
in our country. In proportion to the whole expendi- 
ture of Government, they are, in Austria, as t^t, per 
cent; in France, as 38 per cent; in Prussia, as 4 
per cent; in Great Britain, as 74 per cent; in the 
United States, as 80 per cent! 

To this stupendous waste may be added the still 
larger and equally superfluous expenses of the Mihtia 
throughout the country, placed recently by a candid 
and able writer at $50,000,000 a year ! . . . 

[Here the orator by elaborate figures showed the enor- 
mous cost of the various warlike establishments as beside 
the comparatively insignificant sums expended upon all 
the institutions of learning and beneficence — schools, 
colleges, hospitals, asylums, etc. — the National and State 
judiciary and all other civil purposes, — preparations for 
war from the foundation of the Government to 1843 con- 
suming nearly twelve times as much as the National Gov- 
ernment expended on all other purposes whatsoever.] 



CHARLES SUMNER 213 

Such are illustrations of that tax which nations 
constituting the great Federation of Civilization, 
including our own country, impose on the people, in 
time of profound peace, for no permanent productive 
work, for no institution of learning, for no gentle 
charity, for no purpose of good. Wearily climbing 
from expenditure to expenditure, from waste to 
waste, we seem to pass beyond the region of ordinary 
measurement; Alps on Alps arise, on whose crown- 
ing heights of everlasting cold, far above the habita- 
tions of man, where no green thing Uves, where no 
creature draws breath, we behold the sharp, icy, 
flashing glacier of War. . . . 

The maxim. In ti?ne of Peace prepare for War, is 
transmitted from distant ages, when brute force was 
the general law. It is the terrible inheritance which 
painfully reminds present generations of their con- 
nection with the Past. It belongs to the dogmas of 
barbarism. It is the companion of harsh, tyranni- 
cal rules by which the happiness of the many is 
offered up to the few. It is the child of suspicion, 
and the forerunner of violence. . . . Dismissing 
the actual usage on the one side, and considerations 
of economy on the other, I would regard these 
Preparations in the simple light of reason, in a just 
appreciation of the nature of man, and in the in- 
junctions of the highest truth. Our conclusion will 
be very easy. They are twice pernicious, and whoso 
would vindicate them must satisfactorily answer 



214 ^^^^ AMERICAN ORATIONS 

these two objections: Jirsl, that they inflame the 
people, exciting to deeds of violence, otherwise aUen 
to the mind; and, secondly, that, having their origin 
in the low motives of distrust and hate, inevitably, 
by a sure law of the human mind, they excite to 
corresponding action in other nations. Thus, in 
fact, are they promoters of War, rather than pre- 
servers of Peace. . . . 

War Preparations in a period of professed Peace 
must naturally prompt adverse Preparations, and 
everywhere within the circle of their influence quicken 
the Spirit of War. So are we all knit together that 
the feelings in our own bosoms awaken correspond- 
ing feelings in the bosoms of others, — as harp 
answers to harp in its softest vibration, as deep re- 
sponds to deep in the might of its power. What in 
us is good invites the good in our brother; generosity 
begets generosity; love wins love; Peace secures 
Peace ; — while all in us that is bad challenges the 
bad in our brother; distrust engenders distrust; 
hate provokes hate; War arouses War. Therefore 
are we admonished to avoid such appeal, and this 
is the voice of Nature itself. . . , 

From the past and the present auspicious omens 
cheer us for the future. The terrible wars of the 
French Revolution were the violent rending of the 
body preceding the exorcism of the fiend. Since the 
morning stars first sang together, the world has not 
witnessed a peace so harmonious and enduring as that 



CHARLES SUMNER 21 5 

which now blesses the Christian nations. Great 
questions, fraught with strife, and in another age 
heralds of War, are now determined by Mediation or 
Arbitration. Great poUtical movements, which a few 
short years ago must have led to bloody encounter, 
are now conducted by peaceful discussion. Litera- 
ture, the press, and innumerable societies, all join 
in the work of inculcating good- will to man. The 
Spirit of Humanity pervades the best writings, 
nor can the breathing thought and burning word of 
poet or orator have a higher inspiration. Genius is 
never so Promethean as when it bears the heavenly 
fire to the hearths of men. . . . 

Recognizing those two transcendent ordinances of 
God, the Law of Right and the Law of Love, — twin 
suns which illumine the moral universe, — why not 
aspire to the true glory, and, what is higher than 
glory, the great good, of taking the lead in the dis- 
arming of the nations ? Let us abandon the system of 
Preparations for War in time of Peace, as irrational, 
unchristian, vainly prodigal of expense, and having a 
direct tendency to excite the evil against which it 
professes to guard. Let the enormous means thus 
released from iron hands be devoted to labors of 
beneficence. Our battlements shall be schools, 
hospitals, colleges, and churches; our arsenals shall 
be libraries; our navy shall be peaceful ships, on 
errands of perpetual commerce; our army shall be 
the teachers of youth and the ministers of religion. 



2l6 BEST AMERICAN ORATIONS 

This is the cheap defense of nations. In such in- 
trenchments what Christian soul can be touched 
with fear? Angels of the Lord will throw over the 
land an invisible, but impenetrable panoply: — 

" Or if Virtue feeble were, 
Heaven itself would stoop to her." 

At the thought of such a change, the imagination 
loses itself in vain effort to follow the multitudinous 
streams of happiness which gush forth from a thou- 
sand hills. Then shall the naked be clothed and the 
hungry fed; institutions of science and learning shall 
crown every hilltop; hospitals for the sick, and other 
retreats for the unfortunate children of the world, 
for all who suffer in any way, in mind, body, or es- 
tate, shall nestle in every valley; while the spires of 
new churches leap exulting to the skies. The whole 
land shall testify to the change. Art shall confess 
it in the new inspiration of the canvas and the marble. 
The harp of the poet shall proclaim it in a loftier 
rhyme. Above all, the heart of man shall bear wit- 
ness to it, in the elevation of his sentiments, in the 
expansion of his affections, in his devotion to the 
highest truth, in his appreciation of true greatness. 
The eagle of our country without the terror of his 
beak, and dropping the forceful thunderbolt from 
his pounces, shall soar, with the oHve of Peace, into 
untried realms of ether, nearer to the sun. 



HENRY CLAY 

1777-1852 



Virginian-born, a penniless orphan, with meager schooling, 
young Clay entered an eminent Richmond law office as clerk, 
and became a lawyer. He settled in Lexington, Kentucky, at 
the age of twenty-one. Rather superficial than thorough, his 
alert intelligence, manifest sincerity, and charm of language, 
voice, and manner gave him rapid success. In 1803 he was 
sent to the State legislature, and in 1806, at the age of twenty- 
nine, to the United States Senate. 

He went again to the State legislature, being Speaker of its 
House; was Congressman from Kentucky, and Speaker of the 
House of Representatives for ten years ; Senator in varying 
terms for thirteen years; Peace Commissioner with England 
after the War of 181 2 ; Secretary of State eight years ; and thrice 
Whig candidate for the presidency. He was perhaps the most 
popular and widely beloved American of any time. 

A very significant part of his life was in the House of Repre- 
sentatives, where he advocated tariff protection for "infant 
industries," and where his career as Speaker was exceptionally 
brilliant. He promoted the War of 181 2. In 1820 in the 
Senate he quieted the discussion of slavery in the new Terri- 
tories by the famous Missouri Compromise. With Webster 
he often opposed President Jackson, but, when South Caro- 
lina threatened nullification or secession, he devised the Com- 
promise tariff of 1833, postponing the dreaded issue. In 1846, 
following Texas annexation and the Mexican War, violent 
agitation arose over the question of slavery or free labor in the 
territory acquired from Mexico. Clay was always opposed 
to slavery, but loved the Union, and in 1850, he offered a Com- 
promise bill, admitting California with its adopted constitution 
as a free State, and abolishing the slave trade in the District of 
Columbia, but enacting a stringent fugitive slave law. Por- 
tions of Clay's speech on it (May 13, 1850) are here given. 
The propositions were enacted separately, and once more 
"the great pacificator" had postponed the inevitable crisis. 

Clay died in 1852, a year marked also by the decease of his 
great compeer, Webster. 

218 



THE COMPROMISE MEASURES 

I HAVE risen, Mr. President, for the purpose of 
making some further explanation, and an additional 
exposition to that contained in the report of the 
Committee of Thirteen,^ which has recently been in 
consultation upon the important subjects referred 
to them. When the report of the Committee was 
presented to the Senate last week, various members 
of the Committee rose in their places, and stated 
that certain parts of the report did not meet with 
their concurrence. It might have been stated with 
perfect truth that no one member of the Committee 
concurred in all that was done by the Committee. 
There w^as a majority upon most, and even upon all 
the subjects reported by them; and each member, 
perhaps, if left to himself separately, would have 
presented the various matters which were reported 
to the Senate in a form somewhat different from 
that in which they were presented in the re- 
port. . . . 

I have believed from the first, and I yet firmly 
believe, that if these unhappy subjects which have 

^ Appointed to consider the proposed measures, Mr. Clay 
being chairman. 

219 



220 BEST AMERICAN ORATIONS 

divided the country shall be accommodated by an 
amicable adjustment, it must be done upon some 
such basis as that which the Committee has reported. 
And can there be a doubt on this subject? The 
crisis of the crisis, I repeat, has arrived, and the fate 
of the measures which have been reported by the 
Committee, in my humble judgment, determines 
the fate of the harmony or distraction of this 
country. . . . 

The first measure upon which they reported was 
that of the true exposition of the compact between 
the United States and Texas, upon the occasion of 
the admission of that State into the Union. Upon 
that subject, as already announced in the report, 
I am happy to say, there was an undivided 
opinion. . . . 

But I will not dwell longer upon that part of the 
subject. I will now approach that which, in the 
Committee, and perhaps in the two Houses, has 
given the most trouble and created the most anxiety, 
amongst all the measures upon which the Committee 
have reported — I mean the admission of CaHfornia 
into the Union. Against that measure there were 
various objections. . . . 

[After disposing of objections involving the population 
and the boundaries of California, Mr. Clay proceeded.] 

It is mentioned in the report that there are other 
cases of States which have been admitted without 



HENRY CLAY 221 

the previous authority of Congress.* The honorable 
gentleman from Alabama (Mr. Clemens) stated 
that in all the other instances of States admitted into 
the Union, they had served an apprenticeship of 
so many years. But the statement in the re- 
port stands uncontradicted. Michigan, Arkansas, 
Florida, if no other States, came into the Union 
without any previous act of Congress, according 
to the usage which prevailed in the early admission 
of States, authorizing them to meet in convention 
and form a constitution. But it is said that they 
were under the government of the United States. 
So much the better for them ; they had a good govern- 
ment — a territorial government. But how was 
it with CaHfornia? She had no government. You 
abandoned and deserted her — violated the engage- 
ment of the treaty of Hidalgo — left her to shift 
for herself as well as she could. In this state of 
abandonment, she has formed a constitution and 
come here. I ask again, as I had occasion to ask 
some three months ago, if she does not present 
stronger claims upon our consideration than any of 
those States which had territorial governments, but 
which, not satisfied with them, chose to form for 
themselves State constitutions, and come here to be 
admitted into the Union ? 

* The Californians had met in Convention, framed, and by 
popular vote adopted, a Constitution excluding slavery, and 
thereupon applied for admission as a State. 



222 BEST AMERICAN ORATIONS 

I think, then, Mr. President, that with respect to 
the population of Cahfornia, with respect to the 
limits of Cahfornia, and with respect to the circum- 
stances under which she presents herself to Con- 
gress for admission as a State into the Union, all 
are favorable to the grant of what she solicits, and 
that we can find neither in the one nor the other 
a sufficient motive to reject or to throw her back 
into the state of lawless confusion and disorder from 
which she has emerged. . . . 

[Mr. Clay here discussed territorial government for 
Utah and New Mexico, and settlement of the Texan 
boundaries.] 

The next subject upon which the Committee 
acted was that of fugitive slaves. The Committee 
have proposed two amendments to be offered to 
the bill introduced by the Senator from Virginia, 
(Mr. Mason,) whenever the bill is taken up. The 
first of these amendments provides that the owner 
of a fugitive slave, when leaving his own State, and 
whenever it is practicable, — for sometimes, in the 
hot pursuit of an immediate runaway, it may not 
be in the power of the master to wait to get such 
record, and he will always do it if it is possible, — 
shall carry with him a record from the State from 
which the fugitive has fled; which record shall 
contain an adjudication of two facts: first the fact 
of slavery, and secondly, the fact of elopement; 



HENRY CLAY 223 

and in the third place, such a general description ' 
of the slave as the court shall be enabled to give upon 
such testimony as shall be brought before it. It 
also provides that this record, taken from the county 
court, or from the court of record in the slaveholding 
State, shall be taken to the free State, and shall be 
there held to be competent and sufficient evidence 
of the facts which it avows. Now, Sir, I heard ob- 
jection made to this that it would be an inconven- 
ience and an expense to the slaveholder. I think 
the expense will be very trifling compared to the 
advantages which will result. . . . 

Mr. President, in all subjects of this kind we must 
deal fairly and honestly by all. We must recollect 
that there are feelings, and interests, and sympathies 
on both sides of the question; and no man who has 
ever brought his mind seriously to the consideration 
of a suitable measure for the recapture of runaway 
slaves, can fail to admit that the question is sur- 
rounded with great difficulties. On the one hand, 
if the owner of the slave could go into this non- 
slaveholding State, and seize the negro, put his 
hands upon him, and the whole world would recognize 
the truth of his ownership of property, and the fact 
of the escape of that property, there would be no 
difficulty then in those States where prejudice against 
slavery exists in the highest degree. But he goes 
to a State which does not recognize slavery. Rec- 
ollect how different the state of fact is now from 



224 ^^S'T AMERICAN ORATIONS 

what it was in 1793, nearly sixty years ago. There 
were, then, comparatively few free persons of color — 
few, compared to the numbers which exist at present. 
By the progress of emancipation in the slaveholding 
States, and the multiplication of them by natural 
causes, vast numbers of them have rushed to the 
free States. There are in the cities of Philadelphia, 
New York, and Boston — I have not looked into the 
precise number — some eight or ten to one in pro- 
portion to the number there were in 1793 when the 
Act passed. 

In proportion to the number of free blacks, 
multiplied in the free States, does the difficulty 
increase of recovering a fugitive from a slaveholding 
State. 

Recollect, Mr. President, that the rule of law is 
reversed in the two classes of States. In the slave- 
holding States, color implies slavery, and the onus 
probandi of freedom is thrown on the persons claim- 
ing it, as every [colored] person in the slave-holding 
States is regarded prima facie as a slave. On 
the contrary, when you go to the non-slaveholding 
States, color implies freedom and not slavery. 
Every man who is seen in the free States, though he 
be a man of color, is regarded as free. And when 
a stranger from Virginia or Kentucky goes to re- 
mote parts of Pennsylvania, and sees a black person, 
who perhaps has been living there for years, and 
claims him to be his slave, the feelings and sympathy 



HENRY CLAY 



225 



of the neighborhood are naturally and necessarily 
excited in favor of the colored person. We all 
respect these feelings, where they are honestly 
entertained. 

Well, Sir, what are you to do in a case of that 
kind ? You will give every satisfaction that can be 
given that the person whom you propose to arrest 
is your property, and is a fugitive from your service 
or labor. That is the extent of one amendment 
which we propose to offer, but there is also another. 
The amendment upon which I have been commenting 
provides for the production of a record. Now% what 
is the inconvenience of that ? It provides that when 
the owner of the slave shall arrest his property in a 
non-slaveholding State, and shall take him before 
the proper functionary to obtain a certificate to 
authorize the return of that property to the State 
from which he fled, and if he declares to that func- 
tionary at the time that he is a free man and not a 
slave, what does the pro\nsion require the ofi&cer 
to do ? Why, to take a bond from the agent or owner 
that he will carry the black person back to the 
county of the State from which he fled; and that 
at the first court which may sit after his return, 
he shall be carried there, if he again assert the right 
to his freedom; the court shall afford and the owner 
shall afford to him all the facilities which are req- 
uisite to enable him to establish his right to freedom. 
Now, no surety is even required of the master. 



226 BEST AMERICAxM ORATIONS 

The Committee thought, and in that I beHeve they 
all concurred, that it would be wrong to demand 
of a stranger, hundreds of miles from his home, 
surety to take back the slave to the State from which 
he fled. The trial by jury is what is demanded 
by the non-slaveholding States. Well, we put the 
party claimed to be a fugitive back to the State 
from which he fled, and give him trial by jury in 
that State. 

Well, Sir, ought we not to make this concession ? 
It is but very httle inconvenience. I will tell you. 
Sir, what will be the practical operation of this. 
It will be this: When a slave has escaped from the 
master, and taken a refuge in a free State, and that 
master comes to recapture him and take him back 
to the State from which he fled, the slave will cry out, 
"I do not know the man; I never saw him in my 
life; I am a free man." He will say anything and 
do anything to preserve to himself that freedom of 
which he is for a moment in possession. He will 
assert most confidently before the judge that he is 
a free man. But take him back to the State from 
which he fled, to his comrades, and he will state the 
truth, and will relinquish all claim to freedom. The 
practical operation, therefore, of the amendment 
which we have proposed, will be attended with not 
the least earthly inconvenience to the party claim- 
ing the fugitive. The case is bond without surety. 
The bond is transmitted by the oflicer taking it to 



HENRY CLAY 



227 



the district attorney of the State from which he has 
fled. That officer sees that the bond is executed, 
and that the slave is taken before the court. Per- 
haps, before the slave reaches home, he will acknowl- 
edge that he is a slave ; there is an end of the bond 
and an end of the trouble about the master. Is 
this unreasonable ? Is it not a proper and rational 
concession to the prejudices, if you please, which 
exist in the non-slaveholding States? Sir, our 
rights are to be asserted; our rights are to be main- 
tained. They will be asserted and maintained in 
a manner not to wound unnecessarily the sensibihties 
of others. And, in requiring such a bond as this 
amendment proposes to exact from the owner, I 
do not think there is the slightest inconvenience 
imposed upon him, of which he ought to complain. 
Sir, there is one opinion prevailing — I hope not 
extensively — in some of the non-slaveholding States, 
which nothing we can do will conciliate. I allude 
to that opinion that asserts that there is a higher 
law — a divine law — a natural law — which entitles 
a man, under whose roof a runaway has come, to 
give him assistance, and succor, and hospitality. 
A divine law, a natural law! and who are they that 
venture to tell us what is divine and what is natural 
law? Where are their credentials of prophecy? 
Why, Sir, we are told that the other day at a meet- 
ing of some of these people at New York, Moses 
and all the prophets were rejected, and that the 



228 BEST AMERICAN ORATIONS 

name even of our blessed Saviour was treated with 
sacrilege and contempt by these propagators of a 
divine law, of a natural law which they have discovered 
above all human laws and constitutions. If Moses 
and the prophets, and our Saviour and all others, are to 
be rejected, will they condescend to show us their au- 
thority for propagating this new law, this new divine 
law of which they speak? The law of Nature, Sir! 
Look at it as it is promulgated, and even admitted 
or threatened to be enforced, in some quarters of 
the world. . . . 

But there are persons in this age of enlightenment 
and progress and civilization, who will rise up in 
public assemblages, and, denouncing the Church 
and all that is sacred that belongs to it, — denouncing 
the founders of the religion which all profess and 
revere, — will tell you that notwithstanding the 
solemn oath which they have taken by kissing the 
Book to carry out into full effect all the provisions 
of the Constitution of our country, there is a law 
of their God — a divine law, which they have found 
out and nobody else has — superior and paramount 
to all human law; and that they do not mean to 
obey this human law, but the divine law, of which, 
by some inspiration, by some means undisclosed, 
they have obtained a knowledge. That is the class 
of persons we do not propose to conciliate by any 
amendment, by any concession which we can make. 

But the Committee, in considering this delicate 



HENRY CLAY 229 

subject, and looking at the feelings and interests 
on both sides of the question, thought it best to 
offer these two provisions, — that which requires 
the production of a record in the non-slaveholding 
States, and that which requires a bond to grant to 
the real claimant of his freedom a trial by jury, 
in the place where that trial ought to take place 
according to the interpretation of the Constitution 
of the United States, if it take place anywhere. 
Therefore, in order to obviate the difhculties which 
have been presented, and to satisfy the prejudices 
in the non-slaveholding States, w^e propose to give 
the fugitive the right of trial by jury in the State 
from which he fled. . . . 

Mr. President, the only measure remaining upon 
which I shall say a word now, is the abolition of the 
slave-trade in the District of Columbia. There is, 
I believe, precious little of it. I believe the first 
man in my Hfe that I ever heard denounce that trade 
was a Southern man, — John Randolph of Roanoke. 
I believe there has been no time within the last forty 
years when, if earnestly pressed upon Congress, there 
would not have been found a majority, perhaps a 
majority from the slaveholding States themselves, 
in favor of the abolition of the slave-trade in this 
District. . . . 

At the beginning of this session, as you know, that 
offensive proviso, called the " Wilmot proviso," was 
what was most apprehended, and what all the slave- 



230 BEST AMERICAN ORATIONS 

holding States were most desirlous to get rid of.* 
Well, Sir, by the operation of causes upon the Northern 
mind friendly to the Union, hopes are inspired, which 
I trust will not be frustrated in the progress of this 
measure, that the North, or at least a sufficient 
portion of the North, are now willing to dispense 
with the proviso. ... But I fear there are some 
of our Southern brethren who are not satisfied. 
There are some who say that there is yet the Wil- 
mot proviso, under another form, lurking in the 
mountains of Mexico, in that natural fact to which 
my honorable friend from Massachusetts adverted, 
as I myself did when I hinted that the law of Nature 
was adverse to the introduction of slavery there. 
Now, as you find that just desire is to be obtained, 
there is something further, there are other difficulties 
in the way of the adjustment of these unhappy 
subjects of difference, and of obtaining that which 
is most to be desired, the cementing of the bonds 
of this Union. 

Mr. President, I do not despair, I will not despair, 
that the measure will be carried. And I would al- 
most stake my existence, if I dared, that if these meas- 
ures which have been reported by the Committee of 
Thirteen were submitted to the people of the United 
States to-morrow, and their votes were taken upon 

* Bill introduced in 1846 by David Wilmot of Pennsylvania, 
for purchasing territory from Mexico, provided that slavery 
be excluded from it. 



HENRY CLAY 



231 



them, there would be nine-tenths of them in favor 
of the pacification which is embodied in that report- 
Mr. President, what have we been looking at? — 
What are we looking at ? The " proviso"; an ab- 
straction always; thrust upon the South by the 
North against all the necessities of the case, against 
all the warnings which the North ought to have lis- 
tened to coming from the South ; pressed unnecessa- 
rily for any Northern object; opposed, I admit, by 
the South, with a degree of earnestness uncalled for, 
I think, by the nature of the provision, but with 
a degree of earnestness natural to the South, and 
which the North itself perhaps w^ould have displayed 
if a reversal of the conditions of the two sections 
of the Union could have taken place. Why do you 
of the North press it? You say because it is in 
obedience to certain sentiments in behalf of human 
freedom and human rights which you entertain. 
You are likely to accomplish those objects at once 
by the progress of events, without pressing this 
obnoxious measure. — You may retort, why is it 
opposed at the South? — It is opposed at the South 
because the South feels that, when once legislation 
on the subject of slavery begins, there is no seeing 
where it is to end. Begin it in the District of Colum- 
bia; begin it in the territories of Utah and New 
Mexico and California; assert your power there 
to-day, and in spite of all the protestations — and 
you are not wanting in making protestations — 



232 BEST AMERICAN ORATIONS 

that you have no purpose of extending it to the 
Southern States, what security can you give them 
that a new sect will not arise with a new version of 
the Constitution, or with something above or below 
the Constitution, which shall authorize them to 
carry their notions into the bosoms of the slave- 
holding States, and endeavor to emancipate from 
bondage all the slaves there? . . . 

The cases, then, gentlemen of the North and gen- 
tlemen of the South, do not stand upon an equal foot- 
ing. When you, on the one hand, unnecessarily press 
an offensive and unnecessary measure on the South, 
the South repels it from the highest of all human 
motives of action, the security of property and life, and 
everything else interesting and valuable in hfe. . . . 

Mr. President, I trust that the feelings of attach- 
ment to the Union, of love for its past glory, of anti- 
cipation of its future benefits and happiness; a 
fraternal feehng which, I trust, will be common 
throughout all parts of the country; the desire to 
hve together in peace and harmony, to prosper as we 
have prospered heretofore, to hold up to the civiUzed 
world the example of one great and glorious republic, 
fulfilUng the high destiny that belongs to it, demon- 
strating beyond all doubt man's capacity for self- 
government; these motives and these considerations 
will, I trust, animate us all, bringing us together to 
dismiss aUke questions of abstraction and form, and 
consummating the act in such a manner as to heal 
not one only, but all the wounds of the country. 



JOHN CALDWELL CALHOUN 

1782-1850 



In the second period of our national existence, when the 
Government was laboring at the adjustment of great interests 
— internal improvements, territorial expansion, troubles with 
England resulting in war, the tariff, the United States Bank 
and monetary question, the mutual relations of the States to 
the Union under the Constitution (a troublesome theme, un- 
derlying all the others), etc. — Calhoun, Clay, and Webster 
were the immortal trio of Senators that drew the chief national 
attention, — Webster the Northern Federalist, Calhoun the 
Southern defender of State rights, and Clay the harmonizer. 

Calhoun was a very able, noble, upright, intensely earnest 
man, whose sympathies grew more narrowly concentered 
upon his own State and its interests as he grew older, thus 
somewhat limiting his large usefulness. A South Carolina 
Presbyterian of Scotch-Irish blood, born in poverty, but 
working his way through Yale College and law studies, he 
entered poHtics early in his native State, and was first in its 
legislature, then its representative in Congress ; and his forty 
years in Washington — as Congressman, Secretary of War, 
Vice-President through two terms, almost President (although 
he disclaimed any wish for the post). Senator, again Secretary 
of War, and finally Senator to the end — were spent in con- 
scientious and generally admirable service to the country. 

His greatness appeared in his congressional career in both 
Houses, during which he took prominent part in all important 
questions, but he was at his greatest in the Senate, where the 
notable debates between him and his two great compeers took 
place. His last speech, during the discussion of the Clay 
Compromises of 1850, was read for him by another (on March 
4), owing to his extreme weakness. But he was present, 
and his pallid face and intense eyes added solemnity to his 
words. He died on the 23d of that month. The address 
follows, somewhat abridged. 



234 



SLAVERY AND THE UNION 

I HAVE, Senators, believed from the first that 
the agitation of the subject of slavery would, if 
not prevented by some timely and effective measure, 
end in disunion. Entertaining this opinion, I have, 
on all proper occasions, endeavored to call the at- 
tention of both the two great parties which divide 
the country to adopt some measure to prevent so 
great a disaster, but v/ithout success. The agita- 
tion has been permitted to proceed with almost 
no attempt to resist it, until it has reached a point 
when it can no longer be disguised or denied that 
the Union is in danger. You have thus had forced 
upon you the greatest and gravest question that can 
ever come under your consideration — How can 
the Union be preserved? 

To give a satisfactory answer to this mighty 
question, it is indispensable to have an accurate 
and thorough knowledge of the nature and the 
character of the cause by which the Union is en- 
dangered. Without such knowledge it is impossible 
to pronounce with any certainty, by what measure 
it can be saved; just as it would be impossible for 
a physician to pronounce in the case of some dan- 
235 



236 BEST AMERICAN ORATIONS 

gerous disease, with any certainty, by what remedy 
the patient could be saved, without similar knowledge 
of the nature and character of the cause which 
produce it. The first question, then, presented 
for consideration in the investigation I propose to 
make in order to obtain such knowledge is — What 
is it that has endangered the Union? 

To this question there can be but one answer, 
— that the immediate cause is the almost universal 
discontent which pervades all the States composing 
the Southern section of the Union. This widely 
extended discontent is not of recent origin. It 
commenced with the agitation of the slavery question, 
and has been increasing ever since. The next 
question, going one step further back, is — What 
has caused this widely diffused and almost universal 
discontent ? 

It is a great mistake to suppose, as is by some, 
that it originated with demagogues who excited the 
discontent with the intention of aiding their personal 
advancement, or with the disappointed ambition of 
certain politicians who resorted to it as the means 
of retrieving their fortunes. On the contrary, all 
the great political influences of the section were 
arrayed against excitement, and exerted to the ut- 
most to keep the people quiet. The great mass of 
the people of the South were divided, as in the other 
section, into Whigs and Democrats. The leaders 
and the presses of both parties in the South were 



JOHN CALDWELL CALHOUN 237 

very solicitous to prevent excitement and to pre- 
serve quiet; because it was seen that the effects 
of the former would necessarily tend to weaken, if 
not destroy, the political ties which united them 
with their respective parties in the other section. 

Those who know the strength of party ties will 
readily appreciate the immense force which this 
cause exerted against agitation and in favor of 
preserving quiet. But, great as it was, it was not 
sufficient to prevent the widespread discontent 
which now pervades the section. No: some cause 
far deeper and more powerful than the one sup- 
posed, must exist, to account for discontent so wide 
and deep. 

The question then recurs — What is the cause of 
this discontent? It will be found in the belief of 
the people of the Southern States, as prevalent as the 
discontent itself, that they cannot remain, as things 
now are, consistently with honor and safety, in the 
Union. The next question to be considered is — 
What has caused this behef? 

One of the causes is, undoubtedly, to be traced 
to the long-continued agitation of the slave question 
on the part of the North, and the many aggressions 
which they have made on the rights of the South 
during the time. I will not enumerate them at 
present, as it will be done hereafter in its proper place. 

There is another lying back of it — with which 
this is intimately connected — that may be re- 



238 BEST AMERICAN ORATIONS 

garded as the great and primary cause. This is 
to be found in the fact that the equiUbrium between 
the two sections in the Government as it stood when 
the Constitution was ratified and the Government put 
in action has been destroyed. At that time there was 
nearly a perfect equihbrium between the two, which 
afforded ample means to each to protect itself 
against the aggression of the other; but, as it now 
stands, one section has the exclusive power of con- 
trolling the government, which leaves the other 
without any adequate means of protecting itself 
against its encroachment and oppression. To place 
this subject distinctly before you, I have. Senators, 
prepared a brief statistical statement, showing the 
relative weight of the two sections in the Govern- 
ment under the first census of 1790 and the last 
census of 1840. . . . 

The result of the whole is to give the North- 
ern section a predominance in every department of 
the Government, and thereby concentrate in it the 
two elements which constitute the Federal Govern- 
ment, — a majority of States, and a majority of 
their population, estimated in Federal numbers. 
Whatever section concentrates the two in itself 
possesses the control of the entire Government. 

But we are just at the close of the sixth dec- 
ade and the commencement of the seventh. The 
census is to be taken this year, which must add 
greatly to the decided preponderance of the North 



JOHN CALDWELL CALHOUN 239 

in the House of Representatives and in the Electoral 
College. The prospect is, also, that a great increase 
will be added to its present preponderance in the 
Senate, during the period of the decade, by the ad- 
dition of new States. Two Territories, Oregon and 
Minnesota, are already in progress, and strenuous 
efforts are making to bring in three additional States 
from the Territory recently conquered from Mexico; 
which, if successful, will add three other States in 
a short time to the Northern section, making five 
States, and increasing the present number of its 
States from fifteen to twenty, and of its senators 
from thirty to forty. On the contrary, there is 
not a single Territory in progress in the Southern 
section, and no certainty that any additional State 
will be added to it during the decade. The prospect 
then is, that the two sections in the Senate, should 
the efforts now made to exclude the South from the 
newly acquired Territories succeed, will stand, 
before the end of the decade, twenty Northern 
States to fourteen Southern (considering Delaware 
as neutral), and forty Northern senators to twenty- 
eight Southern. This great increase of senators, 
added to the great increase of members of the House 
of Representatives and the Electoral College on the 
part of the North, which must take place under the 
next decade, will effectually and irretrievably destroy 
the equilibrium which existed when the Govern- 
ment commenced. 



240 BEST AMERICAN ORATIONS 

Had this destruction been the operation of time 
without the interference of government, the South 
would have had no reason to complain; but such 
was not the fact. It was caused by the legislation 
of this Government, which was appointed as the 
common agent of all and charged with the protection 
of the interests and security of all. 

The legislation by which it has been effected, 
may be classed under three heads. The first is, 
that series of acts by which the South has been 
excluded from the common territory belonging to 
all the States as members of the Federal Union — 
which have had the effect of extending vastly the 
portion allotted to the Northern section, and re- 
stricting within narrow limits the portion left the 
South. The next consists in adopting a system of 
revenue and disbursements, by which an undue 
proportion of the burden of taxation has been im- 
posed upon the South, and an undue proportion of 
its proceeds appropriated to the North; and the last 
is a system of political measures by which the orig- 
inal character of the Government has been radically 
changed. 

The first of the series of acts by which the South 
was deprived of its due share of the Territories, 
originated with the confederacy which preceded the 
existence of this Government. It is to be found in 
the provision of the ordinance of 1787. Its effect 
was to exclude the South [i.e. slavery] entirely from 



JOHN CALDWELL CALHOUN 24I 

that vast and fertile region which lies between the 
Ohio and the Mississippi rivers, now embracing 
five States and one Territory. The next of the series 
is the Missouri Compromise, which excluded the 
South from that large portion of Louisiana which 
hes north of 36° 30', excepting what is included in 
the State of Missouri. The last of the series ex- 
cluded the South from the whole of the Oregon 
Territory. All these, in the slang of the day, were 
what are called slave Territories, and not free soil; 
that is. Territories belonging to slaveholding powers 
and open to the emigration of masters with their 
slaves. By these several acts, the South was ex- 
cluded from 1,238,025 square miles — an extent of 
country considerably exceeding the entire valley 
of the Mississippi. . . . 

I have not included the territory recently acquired 
by the treaty with Mexico. ... To sum up the 
whole, the United States, since they declared their 
independence, have acquired 2,373,046 square miles 
of territory, from which the North will have ex- 
cluded the South, if she should succeed in monopoliz- 
ing the newly acquired Territories, about three- 
fourths of the whole, leaving to the South but about 
one-fourth. 

Such is the first and great cause that has destroyed 
the equilibrium between the two sections in the 
Government. 

The next is the system of revenue and disburse- 



242 BEST AMERICAN ORATIONS 

ments which has been adopted by the Government. 
It is well known that the Government has derived 
its revenue mainly from duties on imports. I shall 
not undertake to show that such duties must neces- 
sarily fall mainly on the exporting States, and that 
the South, as the great exporting portion of the 
Union, has in reality paid vastly more than her due 
proportion of the revenue; because I deem it un- 
necessary, as the subject has on so many occasions 
been fully discussed. Nor shall I, for the same reason, 
undertake to show that a far greater portion of the 
revenue has been disbursed in the North, than its 
due share; and that the joint effect of these causes 
has been to transfer a vast amount from South to 
North, which, under an equal system of revenue and 
disbursements, would not have been lost to her. 
If to this be added that many of the duties were 
imposed, not for revenue but for protection, — that 
is, intended to put money, not in the Treasury, but 
directly into the pocket of the manufacturers, — 
some conception may be formed of the immense 
amount which in the long course of sixty years has 
been transferred from South to North. There are 
no data by which it can be estimated with any cer- 
tainty; but it is safe to say that it amounts to hun- 
dreds of millions of dollars. Under the most moder- 
ate estimate it would be sufl&cient to add greatly to 
the wealth of the North, and thus greatly increase 
her population by attracting immigration from all 



JOHN CALDWELL CALHOUN 243 

quarters to that section. This, combined with the 
great primary cause, amply explains why the North 
has acquired a preponderance in every department 
of the Government by its disproportionate increase 
of population and States. . . . 

But while these measures were destroying the 
equihbrium between the two sections, the action 
of the Government was leading to a radical change 
in its character, by concentrating all the power of 
the system in itself. The occasion will not permit 
me to trace the measures by which this great change 
has been consummated. If it did, it would not be 
difficult to show the process commenced at an early 
period of the Government; and that it proceeded, 
almost without interruption, step by step, until 
it absorbed virtually its entire powers. . . . 

The result of the whole of these causes combined 
is — that the North has acquired a decided ascen- 
dency over every department of this Government, 
and through it a control over all the powers of the 
system. A single section governed by the will of the 
numerical majority, has now, in fact, the control 
of the Government and the entire powers of the 
system. What was once a constitutional federal 
republic, is now converted, in reality, into one as 
absolute as that of the Autocrat of Russia, and as 
despotic in its tendency as any absolute government 
that ever existed. . . . 

But if ^here was no question of vital importance 



244 ^^^^ AMERICAN ORATIONS 

to the South, in reference to which there was a 
diversity of views between the two sections, this state 
of things might be endured, without the hazard of 
destruction to the South. But such is not the fact. 
There is a question of vital importance to the South- 
ern section, in reference to which the views and feel- 
ings of the two sections are as opposite and hostile 
as they can possibly be. 

I refer to the relation between the two races in 
the Southern section, which constitutes a vital por- 
tion of her social organization. Every portion of 
the North entertains views and feelings more or less 
hostile to it. Those most opposed and hostile regard 
it as a sin, and consider themselves under the most 
sacred obligation to use every effort to destroy it. . . . 

On the contrary, the Southern section regards the 
relation as one which cannot be destroyed without 
subjecting the two races to the greatest calamity, 
and the section to poverty, desolation, and wretched- 
ness; and accordingly they feel bound by every 
consideration of interest and safety to defend it. . . . 

Such is a brief history of the agitation, as far as it 
has yet advanced. Now I ask. Senators, what is 
there to prevent its further progress, until it fulfills 
the ultimate end proposed, unless some decisive 
measure should be adopted to prevent it ? Has any 
one of the causes, which has added to its increase 
from its original small and contemptible beginning 
until it has attained its present magnitude, di- 



JOHN CALDWELL CALHOUN 245 

minished in force ? . . . No — no — no ! The very 
reverse is true. Instead of being weaker, all the 
elements in favor of agitation are stronger now than 
they were in 1835, when it first commenced, while 
all the elements of influence on the part of the 
South are weaker. . . . 

Unless something decisive is done, I again ask, 
What is to stop this agitation before the great and 
final object at which it aims — the abolition of 
slavery in the States — is consummated ? Is it, 
then, not certain that if something is not done to 
arrest it, the South will be forced to choose between 
abolition and secession? Indeed, as events are 
now moving, it will not require the South to secede 
in order to dissolve the Union. Agitation will of 
itself effect it, of which its past history furnishes 
abundant proof — as I shall next proceed to show. 

It is a great mistake to suppose that disunion can 
be effected by a single blow. The cords which bind 
these States together in one common Union are far 
too numerous and powerful for that. Disunion must 
be the work of time. It is only through a long pro- 
cess, and successively, that the cords can be snapped 
until the whole fabric falls asunder. Already the 
agitation of the slavery question has snapped some 
of the most important, and has greatly weakened all 
the others, as I shall proceed to show. . . . 

If the agitation goes on, the same force, acting 
with increased intensity, as has been shown, will 



246 BEST AMERICAN ORATIONS 

finally snap every cord, when nothing will be left 
to hold the States together except force. But surely 
that can with no propriety of language be called a 
Union when the only means by which the weaker is 
held connected with the stronger portion is force. 
It may, indeed, keep them connected; but the con- 
nection will partake much more of the character of 
subjugation on the part of the weaker to the stronger 
than the union of free, independent, and sovereign 
States in one confederation, as they stood in the 
early stages of the Government, and which only is 
worthy of the sacred name of Union. 

Having now. Senators, explained what it is that 
endangers the Union, and traced it to its cause, and 
explained its nature and character, the question again 
recurs, How can the Union be saved? To this I 
answer, there is but one way by which it can be — 
and that is, by adopting such measures as will 
satisfy the States belonging to the Southern section 
that they can remain in the Union consistently with 
their honor and their safety. There is, again, only 
one way by which this can be effected, and that is by 
removing the causes by which this belief has been 
produced. Do this, and discontent will cease, 
harmony and kind feelings between the sections be 
restored, and every apprehension of danger to the 
Union removed. The question, then, is, How can 
this be done? 

But before I undertake to answer this question, 



JOHN CALDWELL CALHOUN 247 

I propose to show by what the Union cannot be 
saved. 

[Mr. Calhoun here discussed insincere eulogies and cries 
of "The Union!", Senator Clay's proposed Compromise 
bill, the Administration's plan of allowing territorial in- 
habitants instead of Congress to legislate for the Terri- 
tories (''squatter sovereignty"), and particularly the 
proposed admission of California as a State, its constitu- 
tion (excluding slavery) having been formed by its inhab- 
itants without an enabling act from Congress.] 

Having now shown what cannot save the Union, 
I return to the question with which I commenced, 
How can the Union be saved ? . . . 

There is but one way by which it can with any 
certainty; and that is, by a full and final settlement, 
on the principle of justice, of all the questions at 
issue between the two sections. The South asks 
for justice, simple justice, and less she ought not to 
take. She has no compromise to offer but the Con- 
stitution, and no concession or surrender to make. 
She has already surrendered so much that she has little 
left to surrender. Such a settlement would go to the 
root of the evil, and remove all cause of discontent, 
by satisfying the South that she could remain hon- 
orably and safely in the Union, and thereby restore 
the harmony and fraternal feelings between the 
sections which existed anterior to the Missouri 
agitation. Nothing else can, with any certainty. 



248 BEST AMERICAN ORATIONS 

finally and forever settle the question at issue, termi- 
nate agitation, and save the Union. 

But can this be done? Yes, easily; not by the 
weaker party, for it can of itself do nothing — not 
even protect itself — but by the stronger. The 
North has only to will it to accomplish it: to do 
justice by conceding to the South an equal right 
in the acquired territory, and to do her duty by 
causing the stipulations relative to fugitive slaves 
to be faithfully fulfilled ; to cease the agitation of the 
slave question, and to provide for the insertion of a 
provision in the Constitution, by an amendment, 
which will restore to the South, in substance, the 
power she possessed of protecting herself before the 
equilibrium between the sections was destroyed by 
the action of this Government. There will be no 
difiiculty in devising such a provision — one that will 
protect the South, and which at the same time will 
improve and strengthen the Government instead of 
impairing and weakening it. 

But will the North agree to this? It is for her to 
answer the question. But, I will say, she cannot 
refuse if she has half the love of the Union which 
she professes to have, or without justly exposing 
herself to the charge that her love of power and 
aggrandizement is far greater than her love of the 
Union. At all events, the responsibility of saving 
the Union rests on the North, and not on the South. 
The South cannot save it by any act of hers, and the 



JOHN CALDWELL CALHOUN 249 

North may save it without any sacrifice whatever, 
unless to do justice and to perform her duties under 
the Constitution should be regarded by her as a 
sacrifice. 

It is time, Senators, that there should be an open 
and manly avowal on all sides as to what is intended 
to be done. If the question is not now settled, it is 
uncertain whether it ever can hereafter be; and we, 
as the representatives of the States of this Union 
regarded as governments, should come to a distinct 
understanding as to our respective views, in order 
to ascertain whether the great questions at issue can 
be settled or not. If you who represent the stronger 
portion, cannot agree to settle them on the broad 
principle of justice and duty, say so; and let the 
States we both represent agree to separate and part 
in peace. 

If you are unwilling we should part in peace, 
tell us so; and we shall know what to do when you 
reduce the question to submission or resistance. 
If you remain silent, you mil compel us to infer by 
your acts w^hat you intend. In that case California 
will become the test question. If you admit her 
under all the difficulties that oppose her admission, 
you compel us to infer that you intend to exclude 
us from the whole of the acquired territories, with 
the intention of destroying irretrievably the equi- 
hbrium between the two sections. We would be 
bhnd not to perceive in that case that your real 



250 BEST AMERICAN ORATIONS 

objects are power and aggrandizement, and in- 
fatuated not to act accordingly. 

I have now, Senators, done my duty in expressing 
my opinions fully, freely, and candidly on this solemn 
occasion. In doing so I have been governed by the 
motives which have governed me in all the stages 
of the agitation of the slavery question since its 
commencement. I have exerted myself during the 
whole period to arrest it, wdth the intention of saving 
the Union if it could be done; and if it could not, to 
save the section where it has pleased Providence to 
cast my lot, and which I sincerely believe has justice 
and the Constitution on its side. Having faithfully 
done my duty to the best of my ability, both to the 
Union and my section, throughout this agitation, I 
shall have the consolation, let what will come, that 
I am free from all responsibility. 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
I 809-1 865 



The Southern "poor white" is the type of lazy thriftlessness, 
yet from that class arose Abraham Lincoln. Born in Ken- 
tucky, migrating with his father, he grew up in Indiana and 
Illinois. He had practically no schooling, was physically tall, 
tough, and strong, had a tender heart, a clear head, a boundless 
fund of humor, and an indomitable persistence in reading and 
mastering the few books he could get. 

In 1832 Lincoln went to the Black Hawk War. After 
doing what he could in various country callings — meantime 
learning men, trade, and politics, and gaining a name for 
honesty and good judgment — he was in 1834 elected to the 
Illinois legislature. Remaining there till 1842, he read law, in 
1837 beginning practice in Springfield, Illinois. As a lawyer 
Lincoln succeeded, because he was sensible, careful, honor- 
able, refusing cases that he did not trust, knowing what to say 
and how to say it. His assiduous study of a few great authors 
and his own lucid thinking gave him a rare mastery of ex- 
pression. In 1847 ^6 ^^^s elected to Congress for two years. 
In 1858, already known in the West, he encountered in public 
debate the able Senator Stephen A. Douglas — both seeking 
the United States senatorship from Illinois. He lost that 
prize, but achieved a reputation that, with other notable 
addresses, made him President-elect in i860, and heir to the 
awful burdens of the Civil War. 

Lincoln's wise, kind, steady administration, his Emancipa- 
tion Proclamation of 1862, his reelection in 1864, the Union 
triumph in 1865, and his assassination shortly after, are known 
of all. The examples of his simple, cogent oratory given are 
his brave speech on "The Divided House," at the Republican 
Convention, nominating him for the Senate against Douglas 
(June 16, 1858), — premonitory of Seward on "The Irrepress- 
ible Conflict," in the following October, — and his immortal 
address at the Gettysburg Cemetery Dedication (November 
19, 1863). 



352 



THE DIVIDED HOUSE 

Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Conven- 
tion: If we could first know where we are, and 
whither we are tending, we could better judge what 
to do, and how to do it. We are now far into the 
fifth year since a pohcy was initiated with the 
avowed object, and confident promise, of putting an 
end to slavery agitation. Under the operation of 
that policy, that agitation not only has not ceased, 
but has constantly augmented. In my opinion, it 
will not cease until a crisis shall have been reached 
and passed. "A house divided against itself cannot 
stand." I believe this government cannot endure 
permanently half slave and half free. I do not 
expect the Union to be dissolved; I do not expect 
the house to fall ; but I do expect that it will cease 
to be divided. It will become all one thing, or all 
the other. Either the opponents of slavery will 
arrest the further spread of it, and place it where the 
public mind shall rest in the behef that it is in the 
course of ultimate extinction; or its advocates will 
push it forward till it shall become alike lawful in 
all the States, old as well as new, North as well as 
South. Have we no tendency to the latter condi- 
253 



254 



BEST AMERICAN ORATIONS 



tion ? Let any one who doubts carefully contem- 
plate that now almost complete legal combination- 
piece of machinery, so to speak — compounded of the 
Nebraska doctrine and the Dred Scott decision. 
Let him consider not only what work the machinery 
is adapted to do, and how well adapted, but also let 
him study the history of its construction, and trace, 
if he can, or rather fail, if he can, to trace the evidences 
of design and concert of action among its chief archi- 
tects from the beginning. 

The new year of 1854 found slavery excluded from 
more than half the States by State constitutions, 
and from most of the national territory by Congres- 
sional prohibition. Four days later commenced the 
struggle which ended in repeahng that Congressional 
prohibition. This opened all the national territory 
to slavery, and was the first point gained. But, 
so far, Congress only had acted, and an indorsement, 
by the people, real or apparent, was indispensable, 
to save the point already gained and give chance for 
more. This necessity had not been overlooked, 
but had been provided for, as well as might be, 
in the notable argument of "squatter sovereignty," 
otherwise called ''sacred right of self-government"; 
which latter phrase, though expressive of the only 
rightful basis of any government, was so perverted 
in this attempted use of it as to amount to just this: 
that, if any one man choose to enslave another, 
no third man shall be allowed to object. That argu- 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 255 

ment was incorporated with the Nebraska bill itself, 
in the language which follows: "It being the true 
intent and meaning of this act, not to legislate slav- 
ery into any Territory or State, nor to exclude it 
therefrom; but to leave the people thereof perfectly 
free to form and regulate their domestic institutions in 
their own way, subject only to the Constitution of the 
United States." Then opened the roar of loose 
declamation in favor of ''squatter sovereignty," 
and "sacred right of self-government." "But," 
said opposition members, "let us amend the bill so 
as to expressly declare that the people of the Terri- 
tory may exclude slavery." "Not we," said the 
friends of the measure; and down they voted the 
amendment. 

While the Nebraska bill was passing through 
Congress, a law case, involving the question of a 
negro's freedom, by reason of his owner having volun- 
tarily taken him first into a free State, and then into 
a Territory covered by the Congressional prohibi- 
tion, and held him as a slave for a long time in each, 
was passing through the United States Circuit Court 
for the District of Missouri; and both Nebraska 
bill and lawsuit were brought to a decision in the 
same month of May, 1854. The negro's name was 
Dred Scott, which name now designates the decision 
finally made in the case. Before the then next presi- 
dential election, the law case came to, and was 
argued in, the Supreme Court of the United States; 



256 BEST AMERICAN ORATIONS 

but the decision of it was deferred until after the 
election. Still, before the election, Senator Trum- 
bull, on the floor of the Senate, requested the leading 
advocate of the Nebraska bill to state his opinion 
whether the people of a Territory can constitution- 
ally exclude slavery from their limits; and the latter 
answers: ''That is a question for the Supreme 
Court." 

The election came, Mr. Buchanan was elected, 
and the indorsement, such as it was, secured. That 
was the second point gained. The indorsement, 
however, fell short of a clear popular majority by 
nearly four hundred thousand votes, and so, perhaps, 
was not overwhelmingly reliable and satisfactory. 
The outgoing President, in his last annual message, 
as impressively as possible, echoed back upon the 
people the weight and authority of the indorsement. 
The Supreme Court met again, did not announce 
their decision, but ordered a reargument. The presi- 
dential inauguration came, and still no decision of the 
court; but the incoming President, in his inaugural 
address, fervently exhorted the people to abide by 
the forthcoming decision, whatever it might be. 
Then, in a few days, came the decision. The reputed 
author of the Nebraska bill finds an early occasion to 
make a speech at this capital [Douglas, at Spring- 
field, Illinois], indorsing the Dred Scott decision, 
and vehemently denouncing all opposition to it. 
The new President, too, seizes the early occasion of 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 257 

the Silliman letter to indorse and strongly construe 
that decision, and to express his astonishment that 
any different view had ever been entertained. 

At length a squabble springs up between the 
President and the author of the Nebraska bill, 
on the mere question of fact, whether the Lecompton 
constitution was, or was not, in any just sense, made 
by the people of Kansas; and in that quarrel the 
latter declares that all he w^ants is a fair vote for the 
people, and that he cares not whether slavery be 
voted down or voted up. I do not understand his 
declaration, that he cares not whether slavery be 
voted down or voted up, to be intended by him other 
than as an apt definition of the policy he would im- 
press upon the public mind — the .principle for which 
he declares he has suffered so much, and is ready 
to suffer to the end. And well may he cling to that 
principle. If he has any parental feeUng, well may 
he cHng to it. That principle is the only shred left 
of his original Nebraska doctrine. Under the Dred 
Scott decision sc[uatter sovereignty squattered out 
of existence — tumbled down like temporary scaf- 
folding — like the mold at the foundry, served 
through one blast, and fell back into loose sand — 
helped to carry an election, and then was kicked to 
the winds. His late joint struggle with the Republi- 
cans against the Lecompton constitution involves 
nothing of the original Nebraska doctrine. That 
struggle was made on a point — the right of a people 



258 BEST AMERICAN ORATIONS 

to make their own constitution — upon which he 
and the RepubUcans have never differed. 

The several points of the Dred Scott decision, in 
connection with Senator Douglas's "care-not" 
policy, constitute the piece of machinery in its pres- 
ent state of advancement. This was the third point 
gained. The working points of that machinery are: 
(i) That no negro slave, imported as such from Africa, 
and no descendant of such slave, can ever be a citizen 
of any State, in the sense of that term as used in the 
Constitution of the United States. This point is 
made in order to deprive the negro, in every possible 
event, of the benefit of that provision of the United 
States Constitution, which declares that "the citi- 
zens of each State shall be entitled to all privileges 
and immunities of citizens in the several States." 
(2) That, "subject to the Constitution of the United 
States," neither Congress nor a Territorial legisla- 
ture can exclude slavery from any United States 
territory. This point is made in order that individ- 
ual men may fill up the territories with slaves, with- 
out danger of losing them as property, and thus to 
enhance the chances of permanency to the institu- 
tion through all the future. (3) That whether the 
holding a negro in actual slavery in a free State makes 
him free, as against the holder, the United States 
courts will not decide, but will leave to be decided 
by the courts of any slave State the negro may be 
forced into by the master. This point is made, 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 259 

not to be pressed immediately; but, if acquiesced in 
for a while, and apparently indorsed by the people 
at an election, then to sustain the logical conclusion 
that what Dred Scott's master might lawfully do 
with Dred Scott, in the State of Illinois, every other 
master may lawfully do with any other one or one 
thousand slaves, in Illinois, or in any other free 
State. 

AuxiHary to all this, and working hand in hand 
with it, the Nebraska doctrine, or what is left of it, 
is to educate and mold public opinion, at least 
Northern public opinion, not to '' care whether 
slavery is voted down or voted up." This shows 
exactly where we now are, and partially, also, 
whither we are tending. 

It will throw additional light on the latter to go 
back, and run the mind over the string of historical 
facts already stated. Several things will now appear 
less dark and mysterious than they did when they 
were transpiring. The people were to be left * per- 
fectly free," "subject only to the Constitution." 
What the Constitution had to do with it, outsiders 
could not then see. Plainly enough now, it was an 
exactly fitted niche for the Dred Scott decision to 
come in afterward, and declare the perfect freedom 
of the people to be just no freedom at all. Why 
was the amendment expressly declaring the right of 
the people voted down? Plainly enough now: 
the adoption of it would have spoiled the niche for 



26o BEST AMERICAN ORATIONS 

the Dred Scott decision. Why was the court deci- 
sion held up ? Why even a Senator's individual 
opinion withheld till after the presidential election ? 
Plainly enough now: the speaking out then would 
have damaged the "perfectly free" argument upon 
which the election was to be carried. Why the out- 
going President's feUcitation on the indorsement ? 
Why the delay of a reargument ? Why the incoming 
President's advance exhortation in favor of the 
decision ? These things look like the cautious patting 
and petting of a spirited horse preparatory to mount- 
ing him, when it is dreaded that he may give the rider 
a fall. And why the hasty after-indorsement of the 
decision by the President and others ? 

We cannot absolutely know that all these exact 
adaptations are the result of preconcert. But when 
we see a lot of framed timbers, different portions of 
which we know have been gotten out at different 
times and places, and by different workmen, — 
Stephen, Franklin, Roger, and James, for instance, 
— and when we see these timbers joined together, 
and see that they exactly make the frame of a house 
or a mill, all the tenons and mortises exactly fitting, 
and all the lengths and proportions of the different 
pieces exactly adapted to their respective places, 
and not a piece too many or too few — not omitting 
even scaffolding — or, if a single piece be lacking, 
we see the place in the frame exactly fitted and pre- 
pared yet to bring such piece in — in such a case, 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 261 

we find it impossible not to believe that Stephen, 
Franklin and Roger and James all understood one 
another from the beginning, and all worked upon a 
common plan or draft drawn up before the first blow 
was struck. 

It should not be overlooked that, by the Nebraska 
bill, the people of a State, as well as Territory, were 
to be left ''perfectly free," ''subject only to the Con- 
stitution." Why mention a State? They were 
legislating for Territories, and not for or about 
States. Certainly, the people of a State are and 
ought to be subject to the Constitution of the United 
States; but why is mention of this lugged into this 
merely Territorial law? Why are the people of a 
Territory and the people of a State therein lumped 
together, and their relation to the Constitution 
therein treated as being precisely the same ? While 
the opinion of the court, by Chief Justice Taney, 
in the Dred Scott case, and the separate opinions of 
all the concurring judges, expressly declare that the 
Constitution of the United States permits neither 
Congress nor a Territorial legislature to exclude 
slavery from any United States territory, they all 
omit to declare whether or not the same Constitu- 
tion permits a State, or the people of a State, to 
exclude it. Possibly, this is a mere omission; but 
who can be quite sure, if McLean or Curtis had 
sought to get into the opinion a declaration of un- 
limited power in the people of a State to exclude 



262 BEST AMERICAN ORATIONS 

slavery from their limits, just as Chase and Mace 
sought to get such declaration, in behalf of the people 
of a Territory, into the Nebraska bill — I ask, who 
can be quite sure that it would not have been voted 
down in the one case as it had been in the other ? 

The nearest approach to the point of declaring 
the power of a State over slavery is made by Judge 
Nelson. He approaches it more than once, using 
the precise idea, and almost the language, too, of the 
Nebraska act. On one occasion, his exact language 
is: '' Except in cases when the power is restrained by 
the Constitution of the United States, the law of the 
State is supreme over the subjects of slavery within 
its jurisdiction." In what cases the power of the 
States is so restrained by the United States Constitu- 
tion is left an open question, precisely as the same 
question, as to the restraint on the power of the 
Territories, was left open in the Nebraska act. 
Put this and that together, and we have another nice 
little niche, which we may, ere long, see filled with 
another Supreme Court decision, declaring that the 
Constitution of the United States does not permit 
a State to exclude slavery from its limits. And this 
may especially be expected if the doctrine of "care 
not whether slavery be voted down or voted up," 
shall gain upon the public mind sufficiently to give 
promise that such a decision can be maintained when 
made. 

Such a decision is all that slavery now lacks of 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 263 

being alike lawful in all the States. Welcome or 
unwelcome, such decision is probably coming, and 
will soon be upon us, unless the power of the present 
political dynasty shall be met and overthrown. We 
shall lie down pleasantly dreaming that the people 
of Missouri are on the verge of making their State 
free, and we shall awake to the reality, instead, that 
the Supreme Court has made Illinois a slave State. 
To meet and overthrow that dynasty is the work 
before all those who would prevent that consumma- 
tion. That is what we have to do. How can we 
best do it ? 

There are those who denounce us openly to their 
own friends, and yet whisper us softly that Senator 
Douglas is the aptest instrument there is with which 
to effect that object. They wish us to infer all, 
from the fact that he now has a httle quarrel w^ith the 
present head of the dynasty; and that he has regu- 
larly voted with us on a single point, upon which 
he and we have never differed. They remind us 
that he is a great man, and that the largest of us are 
very small ones. Let this be granted. "But a 
living dog is better than a dead lion." Judge Doug- 
las, if not a dead lion, for this work, is at least a 
caged and toothless one. How can he oppose the 
advances of slavery? He don't care anything about 
it. His avowed mission is impressing the ''pubHc 
heart" to care nothing about it. A leading Douglas 
Democratic newspaper thinks Douglas's superior 



264 BEST AMERICAN ORATIONS 

talent will be needed to resist the revival of the 
African slave-trade. Does Douglas believe an effort 
to revive that trade is approaching ? He has not said 
so. Does he really think so ? But if it is, how can 
he resist it ? For years he has labored to prove it a 
sacred right of white men to take negro slaves into 
the new Territories. Can he possibly show that it 
is less a sacred right to buy them where they can be 
bought cheapest ? And unquestionably they can be 
bought cheaper in Africa than in Virginia. He 
has done all in his power to reduce the whole question 
of slavery to one of a mere right of property; and as 
such, how can he oppose the foreign slave-trade ? 
How can he refuse that trade in that "property" 
shall be "perfectly free," unless he does it as a pro- 
tection to the home production ? And as the home 
producers will probably ask the protection, he will 
be wholly without a ground of opposition. 

Senator Douglas holds, we know, that a man may 
rightfully be wiser to-day than he was yesterday 
— that he may rightfully change when he finds him- 
self wrong. But can we, for that reason, run ahead, 
and infer that he will make any particular change, 
of which he himself has given no intimation ? Can 
we safely base our action upon any such vague 
inference ? Now, as ever, I wish not to misrepre- 
sent Judge Douglas's position, question his motives, 
or do aught that can be personally offensive to him. 
Whenever, if ever, he and we can come together on 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 265 

principle, so that our cause may have assistance from 
his great abihty, I hope to have interposed no 
adventitious obstacle. But, clearly, he is not now 
with us — he does not pretend to be, he does not 
promise ever to be. 

Our cause, then, must be intrusted to, and con- 
ducted by, its own undoubted friends — those whose 
hands are free, whose hearts are in the work — who 
do care for the result. Two years ago the Republi- 
cans of the nation mustered over thirteen hundred 
thousand strong. We did this under the single 
impulse of resistance to a common danger. With 
every external circumstance against us, of strange, 
discordant, and even hostile elements, w^e gathered 
from the four winds, and formed and fought the 
])attle through, under the constant hot fire of a 
disciplined, proud, and pampered enemy. Did we 
brave all then, to falter now ? — now, when that 
same enemy is wavering, dissevered, and belligerent ! 
The result is not doubtful. We shall not fail — if 
we stand firm, we shall not fail. Wise counsels 
may accelerate, or mistakes delay it; but, sooner or 
later, the victory is sure to come. 

THE GETTYSBURG CEMETERY 

Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers 
brought forth upon this continent a new nation, con- 
ceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition 



266 BEST AMERICAN ORATIONS 

that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged 
in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any 
nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. 
We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We 
have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final 
resting-place for those who here gave their fives 
that that nation might five. It is altogether fitting 
and proper that we should do this. But in a larger 
sense we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we 
cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living 
and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it 
far above our power to add or detract. The world 
will little note, nor long remember, what we say here, 
but it can never forget what they did here. It is 
for us, the living, rather to be dedicated here to the 
unfinished work which they who fought here have 
thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be 
here dedicated to the great task remaining before us, 
that from these honored dead we take increased 
devotion to that cause for which they gave the last 
full measure of devotion; that we here highly resolve 
that these dead shall not have died in vain; that this 
nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, 
and that the government of the people, by the people, 
and for the people, shall not perish from the earth. 



WILLIAM HENRY SEWARD 

1801-1872 



Country born and bred, in western New York State, Seward 
graduated at Union College, studied law, and practiced it in 
Auburn until 1830, when he was elected to the State Senate. 
He was a man of excellent sense and judgment, cool and clear- 
headed, gifted with a persuasive logic in speech, and wisely 
pursuant of ethical aims in legislation. He was also a shrewd 
reader of men and political conditions, and, both as a Whig 
party man and a promoter of statesmanlike views, he was soon 
a recognized leader. An unsuccessful candidacy for Governor 
of New York in 1834 was succeeded by a success in 1838, and 
a reelection in 1840, while in 1843 he was sent to the United 
States Senate. He remained there through all the turbulent 
excitement of the ante-war period until 1861, and was, both in 
the Senate and in many addresses throughout the North, one 
of the most noted men of the new Republican party which he 
had helped organize in 1856. 

Seward was generally expected to be the Republican candi- 
date in i860, but Providence had for that place a simpler yet 
a stronger man in Lincoln. He became, however, head of 
Lincoln's cabinet as Secretary of State, and was of signal ser- 
vice in various matters, especially in the Trent complication 
with England, in persuading France to withdraw her troops 
from Mexico, and in the purchase of Alaska from Russia. 

On the night of Lincoln's assassination Seward was bru- 
tally attacked, but he recovered, and aided Johnson during 
the reconstruction tangle. He made several trips to Europe, 
in 1870-187 1 going around the world. One of Seward's 
most famous speeches — that on the "Irrepressible Conflict" 
(October 25, 1858) — is here given. Possibly suggested by 
Lincoln's speech on " The Divided House," it was yet a land- 
mark in a time of political drifting, and showed the country 
its true position. 



268 



THE IRREPRESSIBLE CONFLICT 

The unmistakable outbreaks of zeal which occur 
all around me show that you are earnest men — and 
such a man am I. Let us, therefore, at least for a 
time, pass all secondary and collateral questions, 
whether of a personal or of a general nature, and 
consider the main subject of the present canvass. 
The Democratic party, or, to speak more accurately, 
the party which wears that attractive name — is in 
possession of the Federal government. The Repub- 
licans propose to dislodge that party, and dismiss 
it from its high trust. 

The main subject, then, is whether the Demo- 
cratic party deserves to retain the confidence of the 
American people. In attempting to prove it un- 
worthy, I think that I am not actuated by prejudices 
against that party, or by prepossessions in favor 
of its adversary; for I have learned, by some expe- 
rience, that virtue and patriotism, \dce and selfish- 
ness, are found in all parties, a:nd that they differ 
less in their motives than in the policies they pursue. 

Our country is a theater, which exhibits, in full 
operation, two radically different poHtical systems; 
269 



270 BEST AMERICAN ORATIONS 

the one resting on the basis of servile or slave labor, 
the other on voluntary labor of freemen. The 
laborers who are enslaved are all negroes, or persons 
more or less purely of African derivation. But this 
is only accidental. The principle of the system is, 
that labor in every society, by whomsoever per- 
formed, is necessarily unintellectual, groveling, and 
base; and that the laborer, equally for his own 
good and for the welfare of the State, ought to be 
enslaved. The white laboring man, whether native 
or foreigner, is not enslaved, only because he cannot, 
as yet, be reduced to bondage. 

You need not be told now that the slave system 
is the older of the two, and that once it was universal. 
The emancipation of our own ancestors, Caucasians 
and Europeans as they were, hardly dates beyond 
a period of five hundred years. The great meUora- 
tion of human society which modern times exhibit 
is mainly due to the incomplete substitution of the 
system of voluntary labor for the one of servile labor, 
which has already taken place. This African slave 
system is one which, in its origin and in its growth, 
has been altogether foreign from the habits of the 
races which colonized these States, and established 
civiUzation here. It was introduced on this conti- 
nent as an engine of conquest, and for the establish- 
ment of monarchical power, by the Portuguese and 
the Spaniards, and was rapidly extended by them 
all over South America, Central America, Louisiana, 



WILLIAM HENRY SEWARD 27 1 

and Mexico. Its legitimate fruits are seen in the 
poverty, imbecility, and anarchy which now pervade 
all Portuguese and Spanish America. The free- 
labor system is of German extraction, and it was 
established in our country by emigrants from Sweden, 
Holland, Germany, Great Britain, and Ireland. 
We justly ascribe to its influences the strength, 
wealth, greatness, intelligence, and freedom, which 
the whole American people now enjoy. One of the 
chief elements of the value of human life is freedom 
in the pursuit of happiness. The slave system is 
not only intolerable, unjust, and inhuman, toward 
the laborer, whom, only because he is a laborer, it 
loads down with chains and converts into mer- 
chandise, but is scarcely less severe upon the free- 
man, to whom, only because he is a laborer from 
necessity, it denies faciHties for employment, and 
whom it expels from the community because it can- 
not enslave and convert into merchandise also. 
It is necessarily improvident and ruinous, because, 
as a general truth, communities prosper and flourish, 
or droop and decUne, in just the degree that they 
practice or neglect to practice the primary duties of 
justice and humanity. The free-labor system con- 
forms to the divine law of equality, which is wTitten 
in the hearts and consciences of man, and therefore 
is always and everywhere beneficent. 

The slave system is one of constant danger, dis- 
trust, suspicion, and watchfulness. It debases those 



272 BEST AMERICAN ORATIONS 

whose toil alone can produce wealth and resources 
for defense, to the lowest degree of which human 
nature is capable, to guard against mutiny and in- 
surrection, and thus wastes energies which other- 
wise might be employed in national development 
and aggrandizement. 

The free-labor system educates all alike, and by 
opening all the fields of industrial employment and 
all the departments of authority, to the unchecked 
and ec^ual rivalry of all classes of men, at once 
secures universal contentment, and brings into the 
highest possible acti\dty all the physical, moral, and 
social energies of the whole state. In states where 
the slave system prevails, the masters, directly or 
indirectly, secure all political power, and constitute 
a ruling aristocracy. In states where the free-labor 
system prevails, universal suffrage necessarily obtains, 
and the state inevitably becomes, sooner or later, a 
republic or democracy. . . . [European instances.] 

In the United States, slavery came into collision 
with free labor at the close of the last century, and 
fell before it in New England, New York, New 
Jersey, and Pennsylvania, but triumphed over it 
effectually, and excluded it for a period yet unde- 
termined, from Virginia, the Carolinas, and Georgia. 
Indeed, so incompatible are the two systems, that 
every new State which is organized wathin our ever 
extending domain makes its first political act a choice 
of the one and the exclusion of the other, even at the 



WILLIAM HENRY SEWARD 273 

cost of civil war, if necessary. The slave States, 
without law, at the last national election, successfully 
forbade, within their own limits, even the casting of 
votes for a candidate for President of the United 
States supposed to be favorable to the estabhshment 
of the free-labor system in new States. 

Hitherto, the two systems have existed in different 
States, but side by side within the American Union. 
This has happened because the Union is a confedera- 
tion of States. But in another aspect the United 
States constitute only one nation. Increase of popu- 
lation, which is filling the States out to their very 
borders, together with a new and extended network 
of railroads and other avenues, and an internal com- 
merce which daily becomes more intimate, is rapidly 
bringing the States into a higher and more perfect 
social unity or consolidation. Thus, these antago- 
nistic systems are continually coming into closer con- 
tact, and colhsion results. 

Shall I tell you what this colhsion means ? They 
who think that it is accidental, unnecessary, the 
work of interested or fanatical agitators, and there- 
fore ephemeral, mistake the case altogether. It is an 
irrepressible conflict between opposing and enduring 
forces, and it means that the United States must 
and will, sooner or later, become either entirely 
a slaveholding nation, or entirely a free-labor nation. 
Either the cotton and rice-fields of South Carolina 
and the sugar plantations of Louisiana will ultimately 



274 BEST AMERICAN ORATIONS 

be tilled by free labor, and Charleston and New 
Orleans become marts of legitimate merchandise 
alone, or else the rye-fields and wheat-fields of Massa- 
chusetts and New York must again be surrendered 
by their farmers to slave culture and to the produc- 
tion of slaves, and Boston and New York become 
once more markets for trade in the bodies and souls 
of men. It is the failure to apprehend this great 
truth that induces so many unsuccessful attempts 
at final compromises between the slave and free 
States, and it is the existence of this great fact that 
renders all such pretended compromises, when made, 
vain and ephemeral. 

Startling as this saying may appear to you, fellow- 
citizens, it is by no means an original or even a 
modern one. Our forefathers knew it to be true, 
and unanimously acted upon it w^hen they framed 
the Constitution of the United States. They re- 
garded the existence of the servile system in so 
many of the States with sorrow and shame, which 
they openly confessed, and they looked upon the 
collision between them, which was then just reveal- 
ing itself, and which we are now accustomed to de- 
plore, with favor and hope. They knew that one 
or the other system must exclusively prevail. 

Unlike too many of those who in modern time 
invoke their authority, they had a choice between the 
two. They preferred the system of free labor, and 
they determined to organize the government, and 



WILLIAM HENRY SEWARD 275 

SO direct its activity, that that system should surely 
and certainly prevail. ... It is true that they 
necessarily and wisely modified this policy of free- 
dom by leaving it to the several States, affected as 
they were by different circumstances, to abolish 
slavery in their own way and at their own pleasure, 
instead of confiding that duty to Congress; and that 
they secured to the slave States, while yet retaining 
the system of slavery, a three-fifths representation 
of slaves in the Federal government, until they should 
find themselves able to relinquish it with safety. 
But the very nature of these modifications fortifies my 
position, that the fathers knew that the two systems 
could not endure within the Union, and expected 
within a short period slavery would disappear for- 
ever. Moreover, in order that these modifications 
might not altogether defeat their grand design of 
a republic maintaining universal equality, they 
provided that two-thirds of the States might amend 
the Constitution. . . . 

It is not to be denied, however, that thus far the 
course of that contest has not been according to 
their humane anticipations and wishes. In the 
field of Federal politics, slavery, deriving unlooked- 
for advantages from commercial changes, and energies 
unforeseen from the faciUties of combination between 
members of the slaveholding class and between that 
class and other property classes, early rallied, and 
has at length made a stand, not merely to retain 



276 BEST AMERICAN ORATIONS 

its original defensive position, but to extend its sway 
throughout the whole Union. . . . 

The very constitution of the Democratic party 
commits it to execute all the designs of the slave- 
holders, whatever they may be. It is not a party 
of the whole Union, of all the free States and of all 
the slave States; nor yet is it a party of the free 
States in the North and in the Northwest; but it is 
a sectional and local party, having practically its 
seat within the slave States, and counting its con- 
stituency chiefly and almost exclusively there. 
Of all its representatives in Congress and in the 
electoral colleges, two- thirds uniformly come from 
these States. Its great element of strength lies in 
the vote of the slaveholders, augmented by the 
representation of three-fifths of the slaves. Deprive 
the Democratic party of this strength, and it would 
be a helpless and hopeless minority, incapable of 
continued organization. The Democratic party, be- 
ing thus local and sectional, acquires new strength 
from the admission of every new slave State, and 
loses relatively by the admission of every new free 
State into the Union. . . . 

To expect the Democratic party to resist slavery 
and favor freedom is as unreasonable as to look for 
Protestant missionaries to the CathoHc propaganda 
of Rome. The history of the Democratic party 
commits it to the policy of slavery. It has been 
the Democratic party, and no other agency, which 



WILLIAM HENRY SEWARD 277 

has carried that policy up to its present alarming 
culmination. . . . 

[Here Air. Seward gave a historical sketch of the trans- 
actions by which the Democratic party had fostered the 
interests of slavery.] 

Such is the Democratic party. It has no policy, 
State or Federal, for finance, or trade, or manufac- 
ture, or commerce, or education, or internal improve- 
ments, or for the protection or even the security of 
civil or religious liberty. It is positive and uncom- 
promising in the interest of slavery — negative, 
compromising, and vacillating in regard to every- 
thing else. It boasts its love of equahty, and 
wastes its strength, and even its life, in fortifying 
the only aristocracy known in the land. . . . 

This dark record shows you, fellow-citizens, what 
I was unw^illing to announce at an earher stage of 
this argument, that of the whole nefarious schedule 
of slaveholding designs which I have submitted to 
you, the Democratic party has left only one yet to 
be consummated — the abrogation of the law which 
forbids the African slave-trade. . . . 

At last, the RepubUcan party has appeared. It 
avows, now, as the Repubhcan party of 1800 did, 
in one word, its faith and its works, ''Equal and 
exact justice to all men." Even when it first entered 
the field, only half organized, it struck a blow which 
only just failed to secure complete and triumphant 



278 BEST AMERICAN ORATIONS 

victory. In this, its second campaign, it has already 
won advantages which render that triumph now 
both easy and certain. The secret of its assured 
success Hes in that very characteristic which, in 
the mouth of scoffers, constitutes its great and last- 
ing imbecility and reproach. It lies in the fact 
that it is a party of one idea; but- that is a noble 
one — an idea that fills and expands all generous 
souls; the idea of equality — the equality of all 
men before human tribunals and human laws, as 
they all are equal before the Divine tribunal and 
Divine law^s. 

I know, and you know, that a revolution has 
begun. I know, and all the world knows, that 
revolutions never go backward. Twenty senators 
and a hundred representatives proclaim boldly in 
Congress to-day sentiments and opinions and 
principles of freedom which hardly so many men, 
even in this free State, dared to utter in their own 
homes twenty years ago. While the government 
of the United States, under the conduct of the Demo- 
cratic party, has been all that time surrendering 
one plain and castle after another to slavery, the 
people of the United States have been no less steadily 
and perseveringly gathering together the forces with 
which to recover back again all the fields and all 
the castles which have been lost, and to confound 
and overthrow, by one decisive blow, the betrayers 
of the Constitution and freedom forever. 



WENDELL PHILLIPS 

1811-1884 



Of an old and wealthy family in Boston, young Phillips 
was graduated at Harvard, and in 1834 began the practice of 
law. Becoming more and more dissatisfied with the constitu- 
tional limitations that prevented interference with slavery in 
the South, he deserted the law and its binding oath of allegiance 
to the Constitution, and from 1839 threw his lot in with the 
extreme Abolitionists, becoming their chief spokesman. 

His aristocratic appearance, cultured phrases, and refined 
rhetoric gave polish and point to the rapier-like thrusts of his 
argument. Seemingly calm and well-poised, he aroused his 
audiences to intense feeling, and was one of the most effective 
of the early agitators who incited the antislavery sentiment in 
the North. 

But Phillips was also a noted lyceum lecturer. His ad- 
dresses on "The Lost Arts," "Toussaint L'Ouverture," and 
others, always attracted thronged houses. Whether one agreed 
with Phillips or not, the orator's charm was upon him, and 
the voice, the manner, the deliverance itself, were delightful. 

After the emancipation of the slaves, Phillips turned his at- 
tention more specifically to woman suffrage, temperance, labor 
and penal reforms, although he had from the first advocated 
these causes, and was in 1870 the unsuccessful candidate for 
Governor of Massachusetts on a Labor and Prohibition ticket. 
In these matters, however, he made no such effect as in his 
earlier antislavery days. His address on Toussaint L'Ouver- 
ture, which follows, is selected as showing at once his historical 
and descriptive power and his devotion to the enslaved negro 
race. First delivered in 1861, it was repeated on demand of 
those to whom he was to lecture more than two thousand times. 

Phillips was never a self-seeker, but was a rare example of 
a man of wealth, culture, and high social position, devoting all 
that he was and had to the uplifting of the unfortunate." 



280 



TOUSSAINT L'OUVERTURE 

There are three tests by which races love to be 
tried. The first, the basis of all, is courage, — the 
element which says, here and to-day, "This con- 
tinent is mine, from the Lakes to the Gulf: let him 
beware who seeks to divide it!" And the second 
is the recognition that force is doubled by purpose; 
liberty regulated by law is the secret of Saxon prog- 
ress. And the third element is persistency, endur- 
ance; first a purpose, then death or success. Of 
these three elements is made that Saxon pluck which 
has placed our race in the van of modern civilization. 

In the hour you lend me to-night, I attempt the 
quixotic effort to convince you that the negro blood, 
instead of standing at the bottom of the list, is en- 
titled, if judged either by its great men or its masses, 
either by its courage, its purpose, or its endurance, 
to a place as near ours as any other blood known in 
history. And, for the purpose of my argument, 
I take an island, St. Domingo, about the size of 
South Carolina, the third spot in America upon 
which Columbus placed his foot. Charmed by the 
magnificence of its scenery and fertility of its soil, 
he gave it the fondest of all names, Hispaniola, 
281 



282 BEST AMERICAN ORATIONS 

Little Spain. His successor, more pious, rebaptized 
it from St. Dominic, St. Domingo; and when the 
blacks, in 1803, drove our white blood from its 
surface, they drove our names with us, and began 
the year 1804 under the old name, Hayti, the land 
of mountains. 

It was originally tenanted by filibusters, French 
and Spanish, of the early commercial epochs, the 
pirates of that day as of ours. The Spanish took the 
eastern two-thirds, the French the western third 
of the island, and they gradually settled into colonies. 
The French, to whom my story belongs, became the 
pet colony of the mother land. Guarded by peculiar 
privileges, enriched by the scions of wealthy houses, 
aided by the unmatched fertility of the soil, it soon 
was the richest gem in the Bourbon crown; and at 
the period to which I call your attention, about the 
era of our Constitution, 1789, its wealth was almost 
incredible. The effeminacy of the white race 
rivaled that of the Sybarite of antiquity, while 
the splendor of their private life outshone Versailles, 
and their luxury found no mate but in the mad 
prodigaUty of the Caesars. At this time the island 
held about thirty thousand whites, twenty or thirty 
thousand mulattoes, and five hundred thousand 
slaves. The slave-trade was active. About twenty- 
five thousand slaves were imported annually; and 
this only sufl&ced to fill the gap which the murderous 
culture of sugar annually produced. The mulattoes, 



WENDELL PHILLIPS 283 

as with us, were children of the slaveholders, but, 
unlike us, the French slaveholder never forgot his 
child by a bondwoman. He gave him everything 
but his name, — wealth, rich plantations, gangs of 
slaves ; sent him to Paris for his education, summoned 
the best culture of France for the instruction of his 
daughters, so that in 1790 the mulatto race held 
one-third of the real estate and one-quarter of the 
personal estate of the island. But though educated 
and rich, he bowed under the same yoke as with us. 
Subjected to special taxes, he could hold no public 
ofhce, and, if convicted of any crime, was punished 
with double severity. His son might not sit on the 
same seat at school with a white boy; he might not 
enter a church where a white man was worshiping; 
if he reached a town on horseback, he must dismount 
and lead his horse by the bridle; and when he died, 
even his dust could not rest in the same soil with 
a white body. Such was the white race and the 
mulatto, — the thin film of a civilization beneath 
which surged the dark mass of five hundred thousand 
slaves. 

It was over such a population, . . . that there 
burst, in 1789, the thunderstorm of the French Rev- 
olution. The first words which reached the island 
were the motto of the Jacobin Club, — "Liberty, 
Equality." The white man heard them aghast. 
He had read of the streets of Paris running blood. 
The slave heard them with indifference; it was a 



284 BEST AMERICAN ORATIONS 

quarrel in the upper air, between other races, which 
did not concern him. The mulatto heard them 
with a welcome which no dread of other classes could 
quell. Hastily gathered into conventions, they 
sent to Paris a committee of the whole body, laid at 
the feet of the National Convention the free gift 
of six millions of francs, pledged one-fifth of their 
annual rental toward the payment of the national 
debt, and only asked in return that this yoke of civil 
and social contempt should be Kfted from their 
shoulders. . . . 

The Convention hastened to express its gratitude, 
and issued a decree which commences thus: "All 
freeborn French citizens are equal before the law." 
Oge was selected — the friend of Lafayette, a lieu- 
tenant-colonel in the Dutch service, the son of a 
wealthy mulatto woman, educated in Paris, the 
comrade of all the leading French Republicans — 
to carry the decree and the message of French 
Democracy to the island. He landed. The decree 
of the National Convention was laid on the table 
of the General Assembly of the island. One old 
planter seized it, tore it in fragments, and trampled 
it under his feet, swearing by all the saints in the 
calendar that the island might sink before they would 
share their rights with bastards. They took an old 
mulatto, worth a million, who had simply asked 
for his rights under that decree, and hung him. 
A white lawyer of seventy, who drafted the petition, 



WENDELL PHILLIPS 285 

they hung at his side. They took Oge, broke him 
on the wheel, ordered him to be drawn and quartered, 
and one quarter of his body to be hung up in each 
of the four principal cities of the island; and then 
they adjourned. 

You can conceive better than I can describe the 
mood in which Mirabeau and Danton received the 
news that their decree had been torn in pieces and 
trampled under foot by the petty legislature of an 
island colony, and their comrade drawn and quartered 
by the orders of its Governor. Robespierre rushed 
to the tribune and shouted, "Perish the colonies 
rather than sacrifice one iota of our principles!" 
The Convention reaffirmed their decree, and sent it 
out a second time to be executed. 

But it was not then as now, when steam has married 
the continents. It took months to communicate; 
and while this news of the death of Oge and the 
defiance of the National Convention was going to 
France, and the answer returning, great events 
had taken place in the island itself. The Spanish 
of the eastern section, perceiving these divisions, 
invaded the towns of the western, and conquered 
many of its cities. One-half of the slaveholders were 
republicans, in love with the new constellation which 
had just gone up in our Northern sky, seeking to be 
admitted a State in this Republic, plotting for an- 
nexation. The other half were loyalists, anxious, 
deserted as they supposed themselves by the Bour- 



286 BEST AMERICAN ORATIONS 

bons, to make alliance with George III. They sent 
to Jamaica, and entreated its Governor to assist 
them in their intrigue. At first, he lent them only 
a few hundred soldiers. Some time later, General 
Howe and Admiral Parker were sent with several 
thousand men, and finally, the English government 
entering more seriously into the plot, General Mait- 
land landed with four thousand Englishmen on the 
north side of the island, and gained many successes. 
The mulattoes were in the mountains, awaiting 
events. They distrusted the government, which 
a few years before they had assisted to put down an 
insurrection of the whites, and which had forfeited 
its promise to grant them civil privileges. De- 
serted by both sections, Blanchelande, the Governor, 
had left the capital, and fled for refuge to a neigh- 
boring city. . . . 

Deserted now by the whites and by the mulattoes, 
only one force was left him in the island, — that was 
the blacks : they had always remembered with 
gratitude the code noir, black code, of Louis XIV, 
the first interference of any power in their behalf. 
To the blacks Blanchelande appealed. He sent a 
deputation to the slaves. He was aided by the agents 
of Count d'Artois, afterward Charles X, who was 
seeking to do in St. Domingo w^hat Charles II did 
in Virginia (whence its name of Old Dominion), 
institute a reaction against the rebellion at home. 
The two joined forces, and sent first to Toussaint. . . . 



WENDELL PHILLIPS 287 

He said, therefore, to the envoys, "Where are your 
credentials?" "We have none." "I will have 
nothing to do with you. " They then sought Francois 
and Biassou, two other slaves of strong passions, 
considerable intellect, and great influence over their 
fellow-slaves, and said, "Arm, assist the government, 
put down the English on the one hand, and the 
Spanish on the other;" and on the 21st of August, 
1 791, fifteen thousand blacks, led by Franfois and 
Biassou, supplied with arms from the arsenal of 
the government, appeared in the midst of the colony. 
It is believed that Toussaint, unwilling himself to 
head the movement, was still desirous that it should 
go forward, trusting, as proved the case, that it would 
result in benefit to his race. He is supposed to have 
advised Francois in his course, — saving himself 
for a more momentous hour. 

This is what Edward Everett calls the Insurrection 
of St. Domingo. It bore for its motto on one side 
of its banner, "Long live the King," and on the 
other, "We claim the Old Laws." Singular mottoes 
for a rebellion! In fact, it was the posse comitatus; 
it was the only French army on the island; it was 
the only force that had a right to bear arms; and 
what it undertook, it achieved. It put Blanchelande 
in his seat ; it put the island beneath his rule. When 
it was done, the blacks said to the Governor they 
had created, "Now, grant us one day in seven; give 
us one day's labor; we will buy another, and with 



288 BEST AMERICAN ORATIONS 

the two buy a third," — the favorite method of 
emancipation at that time. Like the Blanchelande 
of five years before, he refused. He said, "Disarm! 
Disperse! " and the blacks answered, '"The right hand 
that has saved you, the right hand that has saved 
the island for the Bourbons, may perchance clutch 
some of our ow^n rights;" and they stood still. 
This is the first insurrection, if any such there were 
in St. Domingo, — the first determined purpose on 
the part of the negro, having saved the government, 
to save himself. . . . 

At this moment, then, the island stands thus: 
The Spaniard is on the east triumphant ; the English- 
man is on the northwest intrenched; the mulattoes 
are in the mountains waiting; the blacks are in the 
valleys \dctorious; one half the French slavehold- 
ing element is republican, the other half royalist; 
the white race against the mulatto and the black; 
the black against both; the Frenchman against the 
Enghsh and Spaniard; the Spaniard against both. 
It is a war of races and a war of nations. At such 
a moment Toussaint I'Ouverture appeared. 

He had been born a slave on a plantation in the 
north of the island, — an unmixed negro, — his 
father stolen from Africa. If anything, therefore, 
that I say of him to-night moves your admiration, 
remember, the black race claims it all, — we have 
no part nor lot in it. He was fifty years old at this 
time. An old negro had taught him to read. His 



WENDELL PHILLIPS 289 

favorite books were Epictetus, Raynal, Military 
Memoirs, Plutarch. In the woods, he learned some 
of the qualities of herbs, and was village doctor. 
On the estate, the highest place he ever reached was 
that of coachman. At fifty, he joined the army as 
physician. Before he went, he placed his master 
and mistress on shipboard, freighted the vessel with 
a cargo of sugar and coffee, and sent them to Balti- 
more, and never afterward did he forget to send them, 
year by year, ample means of support. And I might 
add, that, of all the leading negro generals, each 
one saved the man under whose roof he was born, 
and protected the family. 

Let me add another thing. If I stood here to-night 
to tell the story of Napoleon, I should take it from 
the lips of Frenchmen, who find no language rich 
enough to paint the great captain of the nineteenth 
century. Were I here to tell you the story of Wash- 
ington, I should take it from your hearts, — you, 
who think no marble white enough on which to carve 
the name of the Father of his Country. I am about 
to tell you the story of a negro who has left hardly 
one written line. I am to glean it from the re- 
luctant testimony of Britons, Frenchmen, Spaniards, 
— men who despised him as a negro and a slave, 
and hated him because he had beaten them in many 
a battle. All the materials for his biography are 
from the lips of his enemies. . . . 

I cannot stop to give in detail every one of his 



290 BEST AMERICAN ORATIONS 

efforts. This was in 1793. Leap with me over seven 
years; come to 1800; what has he achieved? He 
has driven the Spaniard back into his own cities, 
conquered him there, and put the French banner 
over every Spanish town; and for the first time, 
and almost the last, the island- obeys one law. He 
has put the mulatto under his feet. He has attacked 
Maitland, defeated him in pitched battles, and per- 
mitted him to retreat to Jamaica; and when the 
French army rose upon Laveaux, their general, 
and put him in chains, Toussaint defeated them, 
took Laveaux out of prison, and put him at the head 
of his own troops. The grateful French in return 
named him General-in-Chief. Cet Jiomme fait Vou- 
verture partout, said one, — "This man makes an 
opening everywhere," — hence his soldiers named 
him L'Ouverture, the opening. 

This was the work of seven years. Let us pause 
a moment, and find something to measure him by. 
You remember Macaulay says, comparing Crom- 
well with Napoleon, that Cromwell showed the greater 
military genius, if we consider that he never saw an 
army till he was forty; while Napoleon was educated 
from a boy in the best military schools in Europe. 
Cromwell manufactured his own army; Napoleon 
at the age of twenty-seven was placed at the head 
of the best troops Europe ever saw. They were 
both successful; but, says Macaulay, with such 
disadvantages, the Englishman showed the greater 



WENDELL PHILLIPS 291 

genius. Whether you allow the inference or not, 
you will at least grant that it is a fair mode of measure- 
ment. Apply it to Toussaint. Cromwell never saw 
an army until he was forty; this man never saw 
a soldier till he was fifty. Cromwell manufactured 
his own army — out of what ? Englishmen, — the 
best blood of Europe. Out of the middle class of 
Englishmen, — the best blood of the island. And 
with it he conquered what ? Englishmen, — their 
equals. This man manufactured his army out of 
what? Out of what you call the despicable race of 
negroes, debased, demoraUzed by two hundred years 
of slavery, one hundred thousand of them imported 
into the island within four years, unable to speak 
a dialect intelligible even to each other. Yet out 
of this mixed, and, as you say, despicable mass, he 
forged a thunderbolt and hurled it at what? At 
the proudest blood in Europe, the Spaniard, and 
sent him home conquered; at the most warlike 
blood in Europe, the French, and put them under his 
feet; at the pluckiest blood in Europe, the English, 
and they skulked home to Jamaica. Now if Crom- 
well was a general, at least this man was a soldier. 
I know it was a small territory; it was not as large 
as the continent; but it was as large as that Attica, 
which, with Athens for a capital, has filled the earth 
with its fame for two thousand years. We measure 
genius by quality, not by quantity. 

Further, — Cromwell was only a soldier; his fame 



292 BEST AMERICAN ORATIONS 

stops there. Not one line in the statute-book of 
Britain can be traced to Cromwell; not one step in 
the social life of England finds its motive power in 
his brain. The state he founded went down with him 
to his grave. But this man no sooner put his hand 
on the helm of state, than the ship steadied with 
an upright keel, and he began to evince a statesman- 
ship as marvelous as his military genius. History 
says that the most statesmanhke act of Napoleon 
was his proclamation of 1802, at the Peace of Amiens, 
when, believing that the indelible loyalty of a native- 
born heart is always a sufficient basis on which to 
found an empire, he said: ''Frenchmen, come home. 
I pardon the crimes of the last twelve years; I blot 
out its parties; I found my throne on the hearts of 
all Frenchmen," — and twelve years of unclouded 
success showed how wisely he judged. That was in 
1802. In 1800 this negro made a proclamation; 
it runs thus: "Sons of St. Domingo, come home. 
We never meant to take your houses or your lands. 
The negro only asked that liberty which God gave 
him. Your houses wait for you; your lands are 
ready; come and cultivate them;" — and from 
Madrid and Paris, from Baltimore and New Orleans, 
the emigrant planters crowded home to enjoy their 
estates, under the pledged word, that was never 
broken, of a victorious slave. 

Again, Carlyle has said, "The natural king is one 
who melts all wills into his o\\ti." At this moment 



WENDELL PHILLIPS ^93 

he turned to his armies, — poor, ill-clad, and half- 
starved, — and said to them: Go back and work 
on these estates you have conquered; for an empire 
can be founded only on order and industry, and you 
can learn these virtues only there. And they went. 
The French admiral, who witnessed the scene, said 
that in a week his army melted back into 
peasants. 

It was 1800. The world waited fifty years before, 
in 1846, Robert Peel dared to venture, as a matter of 
practical statesmanship, the theory of free trade. 
. . . But in 1800 this black, with the instinct of 
statesmanship, said to the committee who were 
drafting for him a constitution: ''Put at the head of 
the chapter of commerce that the ports of St. Do- 
mingo are open to the trade of the world." . . . 

Again, it was 1800, at a time when England was 
poisoned on every page of her statute-book with 
religious intolerance, when a man could not enter 
the House of Commons without taking an Episcopal 
communion, when every State in the Union, except 
Rhode Island, was full of the intensest religious 
bigotry. This man was a negro. You say that is 
a superstitious blood. He was uneducated. You 
say that makes a man narrow-minded. He was a 
CathoUc. Many say that is but another name for 
intolerance. And yet — negro, CathoHc, slave — 
he took his place by the side of Roger WilUams, 
and said to his committee: "Make it the first Une 



294 BEST AMERICAN ORATIONS 

of my constitution that I know no difference between 
religious beliefs." 

Now, blue-eyed Saxon, proud of your race, go back 
with me to the commencement of the century, and 
select what statesman you please. Let him be either 
American or European; let him have a brain the 
result of six generations of culture; let him have the 
ripest training of university routine; let him add to 
it the better education of practical life; crown his 
temples with the silver of seventy years; and show 
me the man of Saxon lineage for whom his most 
sanguine admirer will wreathe a laurel rich as em- 
bittered foes have placed on the brow of this negro, 
— rare military skill, profound knowledge of human 
nature, content to blot out all party distinctions and 
trust a state to the blood of its sons, anticipating 
Sir Robert Peel fifty years, and taking his station 
by the side of Roger Williams before any Englishman 
or American had won the right; — and yet this is 
the record which the history of rival states makes 
up for this inspired black of St. Domingo. 

It was 1 80 1. The Frenchmen who lingered on the 
island described its prosperity and order as almost 
incredible. You might trust a child with a bag of 
gold to go from Samana to Port-au-Prince without 
risk. Peace was in every household; the valleys 
laughed with fertility; culture climbed the moun- 
tains; the commerce of the world was represented in 
its harbors. At this time Europe concluded the 



WENDELL PHILLIPS 295 

Peace of Amiens, and Napoleon took his seat on the 
throne of France. He glanced his eyes across the 
Atlantic, and, with a single stroke of his pen, reduced 
Cayenne and Martinique back into chains. He then 
said to his Council, "What shall I do with St. Do- 
mingo?" The slaveholders said, "Give it to us." 
Napoleon turned to the Abbe Gregoire, "What is 
your opinion?" "I think those men would change 
their opinions, if they changed their skins." 

Colonel Vincent, who had been private secretary 
to Toussaint, wrote a letter to Napoleon, in which 
he said: "Sire, leave it alone; it is the happiest spot 
in your dominions; God raised this man to govern; 
races melt under his hand. He has saved you this 
island; for I know of my own knowledge that, when 
the Republic could not have lifted a finger to prevent 
it, George III offered him any title and any revenue 
if he would hold the island under the British crown. 
He refused, and saved it for France." Napoleon 
turned away from his Council, and is said to have 
remarked, "I have sixty thousand idle troops; I 
must find them something to do." He meant to 
say, " I am about to seize the crown; I dare not do it 
in the faces of sixty thousand republican soldiers: 
I must give them work at a distance to do." 

The gossip of Paris gives another reason for his 
expedition against St. Domingo. It is said that the 
satirists of Paris had christened Toussaint, the Black 
Napoleon; and Bonaparte hated his black shadow. 



296 BEST AMERICAN ORATIONS 

Toussaint had unfortunately once addressed him a 
letter, "The first of the blacks to the first of the 
whites." He did not like the comparison. . . . 
So Napoleon resolved to crush Toussaint, from one 
motive or another, from the prompting of ambition, 
or dislike of this resemblance, — which was very 
close. If either imitated the other, it must have 
been the white, since the negro preceded him several 
years. They were very much alike. . . . 

Like Napoleon, he could fast many days; could 
dictate to three secretaries at once; could wear out 
four or five horses. Like Napoleon, no man ever 
divined his purpose or penetrated his plan. He 
was only a negro, and so, in him, they called it hy- 
pocrisy. In Bonaparte we style it diplomacy. . . . 

Then, again, h];e Napoleon, — Uke genius always, 
— he had confidence in his power to rule men. You 
remember when Bonaparte returned from Elba, and 
Louis XVIII sent an army against him, Bonaparte 
descended from his carriage, opened his coat, offering 
his breast to their muskets, and saying, "Frenchmen, 
it is the Emperor!" and they ranged themselves 
behind him, his soldiers, shouting, " Vive VEm- 
pereurf' That was in 18 15. Twelve years before, 
Toussaint, finding that four of his regiments had 
deserted and gone to Leclerc, drew his sword, flung 
it on the grass, went across the field to them, folded 
his arms, and said, " Children, can you point a bay- 
onet at me? " The blacks fell on their knees, praying 



WENDELL PHILLIPS 297 

his pardon. His bitterest enemies watched him, 
and none of them charged him with love of money, 
sensuaHty, or cruel use of power. . . . 

Above the lust of gold, pure in private life, gener- 
ous in the use of his power, it was against such a 
man that Napoleon sent his army, giving to General 
Leclerc, the husband of his beautiful sister Pauline, 
thirty thousand of his best troops, with orders to 
reintroduce slavery. Among these soldiers came 
all of Toussaint's old mulatto rivals and foes. 

Holland lent sixty ships. England promised by 
special message to be neutral; and you know neu- 
trality means sneering at freedom, and sending arms 
to tyrants.^ England promised neutrality, and the 
black looked out on the whole civilized world mar- 
shaled against him. America, full of slaves, of course 
was hostile. Only the Yankee sold him poor muskets 
at a very high price. Mounting his horse, and riding 
to the eastern end of the island, Samana, he looked 
out on a sight such as no native had ever seen before. 
Sixty ships of the line, crowded by the best soldiers 
of Europe, rounded the point. They were soldiers 
who had never yet met an equal, whose tread, like 
Cassar's, had shaken Europe, — soldiers who had 
scaled the Pyramids, and planted the French banners 
on the walls of Rome. He looked a moment, counted 
the flotilla, let the reins fall on the neck of his horse, 

^ Allusion to English arms furnished the South early in 
the Rebellion. 



298 BEST AMERICAN ORATIONS 

and, turning to Christophe, exclaimed: "All France 
is come to Hayti; they can only come to make us 
slaves; and we are lost!" He then recognized the 
only mistake of his life, — his confidence in Bona- 
parte, which had led him to disband his army. 

Returning to the hills, he issued the only procla- 
mation which bears his name and breathes ven- 
geance: ''My children, France comes to make us 
slaves. God gave us liberty; France has no right 
to take it away. Burn the cities, destroy the har- 
vests, tear up the roads with cannon, poison the wells, 
show the white man the hell he comes to make;" — ' 
and he was obeyed. When the great William of 
Orange saw Louis XIV cover Holland with troops, 
he said, "Break down the dikes, give Holland back 
to ocean;" and Europe said, "Sublime!" When 
Alexander saw the armies of France descend upon 
Russia, he said, "Burn Moscow, starve back the 
invaders;" and Europe said, "Sublime!" This 
black saw all Europe marshaled to crush him, and 
gave to his people the same heroic example of 
defiance. . . . 

Leclerc sent word to Christophe that he was about 
to land at Cape City. Christophe said, "Toussaint 
is governor of the island. I will send to him for per- 
mission. If without it a French soldier sets foot on 
shore, I will burn the town, and fight over its ashes." 

Leclerc landed. Christophe took two thousand 
white men, women, and children, and carried them 



WENDELL PHILLIPS 299 

to the mountains in safety, then with his own hands 
set fire to the splendid palace which French architects 
had just finished for him, and in forty hours the place 
was in ashes. The battle was fought in its streets, 
and the French driven back to their boats. Wher- 
ever they went they were met with fire and sword. . . . 

Beaten in the field, the French then took to Hes. 
They issued proclamations, saying, "We do not come 
to make you slaves; this man Toussaint tells you lies. 
Join us, and you shall have the rights you claim." 
They cheated every one of his ofiicers, except Chris- 
tophe and Dessahnes, and his own brother Pierre, 
and finally these also deserted him, and he was left 
alone. He then sent word to Leclerc, " I will submit. 
I could continue the struggle for years, — could pre- 
vent a single Frenchman from safely quitting your 
camp. But I hate bloodshed. I have fought only 
for the liberty of my race. Guarantee that, I will 
submit and come in." He took the oath to be a 
faithful citizen; and on the same crucifix Leclerc 
swore that he should be faithfully protected, and 
that the island should be free. As the French gen- 
eral glanced along the line of his splendidly equipped 
troops, and saw, opposite, Toussaint's ragged, ill- 
armed followers, he said to him, "L'Ouverture, had 
you continued the war, where could you have got 
arms ? " ''I would have taken yours," was the Spar- 
tan reply. 

He went down to his house in peace; it was sum- 



300 



BEST AMERICAN ORATIONS 



mer. Leclerc remembered that the fever months 
were coming, when his army would be in hospitals, 
and when one motion of that royal hand would 
sweep his troops into the sea. He was too dangerous 
to be left at large. So they summoned him to attend 
a council; and here is the only charge made against 
him, — the only charge. They say he was fool 
enough to go. . . . The moment he entered the 
room, the officers drew their swords, and told him 
he was prisoner; and one young lieutenant who 
was present says, "He was not at all surprised, but 
seemed very sad." They put him on shipboard, 
and weighed anchor for France. As the island faded 
from his sight, he turned to the captain, and said, 
"You think you have rooted up the tree of liberty, 
but I am only a branch; I have planted the tree so 
deep that all France can never root it up." 

Arrived in Paris, he was flung into jail, and Na- 
poleon sent his secretary, Caffarelli, to him, supposing 
he had buried large treasures. He listened awhile, 
then replied, "Young man, it is true I have lost 
treasures, but they are not such as you come to seek." 
He was then sent to the Castle of St. Joux, to a 
dungeon twelve feet by twenty, built wholly of stone, 
with a narrow window, high up on the side, looking 
out on the snows of Switzerland. In winter, ice 
covers the floor; in summer, it is damp and wet. 
In this living tomb the child of the sunny tropic was 
left to die. ... 



WENDELL PHILLIPS 301 

The commandant allowed him five francs a day 
for food and fuel. Napoleon heard of it, and reduced 
the sum to three. The luxurious usurper, who com- 
plained that the English government was stingy 
because it allowed him only six thousand dollars 
a month, stooped from his throne to cut down 
a dollar to a half, and still Toussaint did not die 
quick enough. . . . Finally, the commandant w^as 
told to go into Switzerland, to carry the keys of the 
dungeon with him, and to stay four days; when he 
returned, Toussaint was found starved to death. . . . 
God grant that when some future Plutarch shall 
weigh the great men of our epoch, the whites against 
the blacks, he do not put that whining child at St. 
Helena into one scale, and into the other the negro 
meeting death hke a Roman, without a murmur, 
in the solitude of his icy dungeon! 

From the moment he was betrayed, the negroes 
began to doubt the French, and rushed to arms. 
Soon every negro but Maurepas deserted the French. 
Leclerc summoned Maurepas to his side. He came, 
loyally bringing with him five hundred soldiers. 
Leclerc spiked his epaulettes to his shoulders, shot 
him, and flung him into the sea. He took his five 
hundred soldiers on shore, shot them on the edge of 
a pit, and tumbled them in. Dessalines from the 
mountain saw it, and selecting five hundred French 
ofiicers from his prisons, hung them on separate trees 
in sight of Leclerc's camp; and born, as I was, not 



302 BEST AMERICAN ORATIONS 

far from Bunker Hill, I have yet found no reason to 
think he did wrong. They murdered Pierre Tous- 
saint's wife at his own door, and after such treat- 
ment that it w^as mercy when they killed her. The 
maddened husband, who had but a year before saved 
the lives of twelve hundred white men, carried his 
next thousand prisoners and sacrificed them on her 
grave. 

The French exhausted every form of torture. 
The negroes were bound together and thrown into 
the sea; any one who floated was shot, — others 
sunk with cannon-balls tied to their feet; some 
smothered with sulphur fumes, — others strangled, 
scourged to death, gibbeted; sixteen of Toussaint's 
ofhcers were chained to rocks in desert islands, — 
others in marshes, and left to be devoured by poi- 
sonous reptiles and insects. Rochambeau sent to 
Cuba for bloodhounds. When they arrived, the 
young girls went down to the wharf, decked the 
hounds with ribbons and flowers, kissed their necks, 
and, seated in the amphitheater, the women clapped 
their hands to see a negro throwm to these dogs, 
previously starved to rage. But the negroes be- 
sieged this very city so closely that these same girls, 
in their misery, ate the very hounds they had wel- 
comed. . . . 

The war went on. Napoleon sent over thirty 
thousand more soldiers. But disaster still followed 
his efforts. What the sword did not devour, the fever 



WENDELL PHILLIPS 



3^3 



ate up. Leclerc died. Pauline carried his body back 
to France. Napoleon met her, saying, "Sister, I 
gave you an army, — you bring me back ashes. . . . 

Some doubt the courage of the negro. Go to 
Playti, and stand on those fifty thousand graves of 
the best soldiers France ever had, and ask them 
what they think of the negro's sword. And if that 
does not satisfy you, go to France, to the splendid 
mausoleum of the Counts of Rochambeau, and to the 
eight thousand graves of Frenchmen who skulked 
home under the English flag, and ask them. And 
if that does not satisfy you, come home, and if it had 
been October, 1859,^ you might have come by way 
of quaking Virginia, and asked her what she thought 
of negro courage. . . . 

Hayti, from the ruins of her colonial dependence, 
is become a civilized state, the seventh nation in the 
catalogue of commerce with this country, inferior 
in morals and education to none of the West Indian 
isles. . . . Toussaint made her what she is. In 
this w^ork there was grouped around him a score of 
men, mostly of pure negro blood, who ably seconded 
his efforts. They were able in war and skillful in 
civil affairs, but not, like him, remarkable for that 
rare mingling of high qualities which alone makes 
true greatness, and insures a man leadership among 
those otherwise almost his equals. Toussaint was in- 
disputably their chief. Courage, purpose, endurance, 

^ John Brown's raid. 



304 BEST AMERICAN ORATIONS 

— these are the tests. He did plant a state so deep 
that all the world has not been able to root it up. 

I would call him Napoleon, but Napoleon made his 
way to empire over broken oaths and through a sea 
of blood. This man never broke his word. No 
Retaliation was his great motto and the rule of his 
life; and the last words uttered to his son in France 
were these: "My boy, you will one day go back 
to St. Domingo; forget that France murdered your 
father." I would call him Cromwell, but Cromwell 
was only a soldier, and the state he founded went 
down with him into his grave. I would call him 
Washington, but the great Virginian held slaves. 
This man risked his empire rather than permit 
the slave-trade in the humblest village of his 
dominions. 

You think me a fanatic to-night, for you read his- 
tory, not with your eyes, but with your prejudices. 
But fifty years hence, when Truth gets a hearing, 
the Muse of History will put Phocion for the Greek, 
and Brutus for the Roman, Hampden for England, 
Fayette for France, choose Washington as the bright, 
consummate flower of our earlier civilization, and 
John Brown the ripe fruit of our noonday, then, 
dipping her pen in the sunlight, will write in the clear 
blue, above them all, the name of the soldier, the 
statesman, the martyr, Toussaint L'Ouverture. 



HENRY WARD BEECHER 

1813-1887 



In a book of memorial tributes to Henry Ward Beecher 
written shortly after his death in 1887, occur these words in 
the contribution of William E. Gladstone : "To his undying 
fame the world and his memory stand in no need of witnesses." 
Of Beecher's forty years of public service, centering at his 
Plymouth Church pulpit, the venerable and conservatively 
wise Mark Hopkins wrote: "No such instance of prolonged 
steady power at one point, in connection with other labors so 
extended and diversified, and magnificent in their results, has 
ever been known." His grand work as an apostle of freedom 
before and during the Civil War, his amazing oratorical con- 
trol of turbulent audiences in England, where he changed the 
feeling of a nation toward the Union cause, and his being the 
chosen mouthpiece of the people and the leaders upon all great 
occasions in his own land, caused President Lincoln to ap- 
point him orator of the day for the raising anew of the flag on 
Fort Sumter at the end of the war. 

The day was over, with its noble oration and celebration, 
and Mr. Beecher with the invited guests sailed back to New 
York in joy, to be greeted with the stunning announcement 
of the President's assassination. Mr. Beecher went to his 
Peekskill home, and the next Sunday, April 23, 1865, de- 
livered in his pulpit the discourse on Abraham Lincoln which 
here follows. He did not trust himself to look at his audience; 
the swollen stream of thought and feeling must flow to its ap- 
pointed end without breaking its banks : he seemingly read 
the whole — from a manuscript of a few sentences. And he 
judged well : it was more impressive than any amount of emo- 
tional rhetoric could have made it. 

As an orator, who put his whole grand self into his speaking, 
Beecher had no equal in that era of eloquent men, — nor has 
any one approaching him arisen since he departed. 



306 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

**And Moses went up from the plains of Moab unto 
the mountain of Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, that is over 
against Jericho. And the Lord shewed him all the land 
of Gilead, unto Dan, and all Naphtali, and the land of 
Ephraim, and Manasseh, and all the land of Judah, unto 
the utmost sea, and the south, and the plain of the valley 
of Jericho, the city of palm trees, unto Zoar. And the 
Lord said unto him, This is the land which I sware unto 
Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, saying, I will give 
it unto thy seed: I have caused thee to see it with thine 
eyes, but thou shalt not go over thither. So Moses the 
servant of the Lord died there in the land of Moab, accord- 
ing to the word of the Lord." — Deut. xxxiv. 1-5. 

There is no historic figure more noble than that of 
the Jewish lav^giver. After so many thousand years, 
the figure of Moses is not diminished, but stands up 
against the background of early days distinct and 
individual as if he had lived but yesterday. There 
is scarcely another event in history more touching 
than his death. He had borne the great burdens 
of state for forty years, shaped the Jews to a nation, 
filled out their civil and religious polity, administered 
their laws, guided their steps, or dealt with them 
in all their journeyings in the wilderness; had 
307 



3o8 



BEST AMERICAN ORATIONS 



mourned in their punishment, kept step with their 
march, and led them in wars until the end of their 
labors drew nigh. The last stage was reached. 
Jordan, only, lay between them and "the promised 
land." The Promised Land! O, what yearnings 
had heaved his breast for that divinely foreshadowed 
place! He had dreamed of it by night, and mused 
by day; it was holy and endeared as God's favored 
spot. It was to be the cradle of an illustrious his- 
tory. All his long, laborious, and now weary life, 
he had aimed at this as the consummation of every 
desire, the reward of every toil and pain. Then came 
the word of the Lord to him: "Thou mayest not go 
over. Get thee up into the mountain; look upon it; 
and die!" 

From that silent summit the hoary leader gazed 
to the north, to the south, to the west, with hungry 
eyes. The dim outlines rose up. The hazy recesses 
spoke of quiet valleys between hills. With eager 
longing, with sad resignation, he looked upon the 
promised land. It was now to him a forbidden land. 
This was but a moment's anguish, he forgot all his 
personal wants, and drank in the vision of his peo- 
ple's home. His work was done. There lay God's 
promise fulfilled. There was the seat of coming 
Jerusalem ; there the city of Judah's King ; the sphere 
of judges and prophets; the Mount of sorrow and 
salvation; the nest whence were to fly blessings 
innumerable to all mankind. Joy chased sadness 



HENRY WARD BEECHER 



309 



from every feature, and the prophet laid him down 
and died. 

Again a great leader of the people has passed 
through toil, sorrow, battle, and war, and come near 
to the promised land of peace, into which he might 
not pass over. Who shall recount our martyr's 
sufferings for this people! Since the November of 
i860, his horizon has been black with storms. By 
day and by night he trod a way of danger and dark- 
ness. On his shoulders rested a government dearer 
to him than his own life. At its integrity millions 
of men at home were striking: upon it foreign eyes 
lowered. It stood like a lone island in a sea full of 
storms; and every tide and wave seemed eager to 
devour it. Upon thousands of hearts great sorrows 
and anxieties have rested, but not on one, such, and 
in such measure, as upon that simple, truthful, 
noble soul, our faithful and sainted Lincoln. Never 
rising to the enthusiasm of more impassioned natures 
in hours of hope, and never sinking with the mercurial 
in hours of defeat to the depths of despondency, he 
held on with unmovable patience and fortitude, put- 
ting caution against hope that it might not be pre- 
mature, and hope against caution that it might not 
yield to dread and danger. He wrestled ceaselessly, 
through four black and dreadful purgatorial years, 
wherein God was cleansing the sins of his people as' 
by fire. 

At last the watcher beheld the gray dawn for the 



3IO BEST AMERICAN ORATIONS 

country. The mountains began to give forth their 
forms from out of the darkness: and the East came 
rushing toward us with arms full of joy for all our 
sorrows. Then it was for him to be glad exceed- 
ingly, that had sorrowed immeasurably. Peace 
could bring to no other heart such joy, such rest, 
such honor, such trust, such gratitude. But he 
looked upon it as Moses looked upon the promised 
land. 

Then the wail of a nation proclaimed that he had 
gone from among us. 

Not thine the sorrow, but ours, sainted soul! 
Thou hast indeed entered into the promised land, 
while we are yet on the march. To us remain the 
rocking of the deep, the storm upon the land, days 
of duty and nights of watching ; but thou art sphered 
high above all darkness and fear, beyond all sorrow 
and weariness. Rest, O weary heart! Rejoice ex- 
ceedingly, thou that hast enough suffered! Thou 
hast beheld Him who invisibly led thee in this great 
wilderness. Thou standest among the elect. Around 
thee are the royal men that have ennobled human 
life in every age. Kingly art thou, with glory on thy 
brow as a diadem. And joy is upon thee for ever- 
more. Over all this land, over all the little cloud of 
years that now from thine infinite horizon moves 
back as a speck, thou art lifted up as high as a star 
is above the clouds, that hide us but never reach it. 
In the goodly company of Mount Zion thou shalt 



HENRY WARD BEECHER 



311 



find that rest which thou hast sorrowing sought here 
in vain; and thy name, an everlasting name in 
heaven, shall flourish in fragrance and beauty as 
long as men shall last upon the earth, or hearts 
remain, to revere truth, fidelity, and goodness. 

Never did two such orbs of experience meet in one 
hemisphere, as the joy and the sorrow of the same 
week in this land. The joy of final victory was as 
sudden as if no man had expected it, and as entranc- 
ing as if it had fallen a sphere from heaven. It rose 
up over sobriety, and swept business from its moor- 
ings, and ran down through the land in irresistible 
course. Men embraced each other in brotherhood 
that were strangers in the flesh. They sang, or 
prayed, or, deeper yet, many could only think 
thanksgiving and weep gladness. That peace was 
sure; that our government was firmer than ever; 
that the land was cleansed of plague; that the ages 
were opening to our footsteps, and we were to begin 
a march of blessings ; that blood was stanched, and 
scowUng enmities were sinking Hke storms beneath 
the horizon; that the dear fatherland, nothing lost, 
much gained, was to rise up in unexampled honor 
among the nations of the earth, — these thoughts, 
and that undistinguishable throng of fancies, and 
hopes, and desires, and yearnings, that filled the soul 
with tremblings like the heated air of midsummer 
days, — all these kindled up such a surge of joy 
as no words may describe. 



312 BEST AMERICAN ORATIONS 

In one hour, under the blow of a single bereave- 
ment, joy lay without a pulse, without a gleam, or 
breath. A sorrow came that swept through the land 
as huge storms sweep through the forest and field, 
rolling thunder along the sky, disheveling the 
flowers, daunting every singer in thicket or forest, and 
pouring blackness and darkness across the land and 
upon the mountains. Did ever so many hearts, 
in so brief a time, touch two such boundless feelings ? 
It was the uttermost of joy; it was the uttermost 
of sorrow, — noon and midnight without a space 
between! 

The blow brought not a sharp pang. It was so 
terrible that at first it stunned sensibihty. Citizens 
were like men awakened at midnight by an earth- 
quake, and bewildered to find everything that they 
were accustomed to trust wavering and falling. 
The very earth was no longer soHd. The first feel- 
ing was the least. Men waited to get straight to 
feel. They w^andered in the streets as if groping 
after some impending dread, or undeveloped sorrow, 
or some one to tell them what ailed them. They 
met each other as if each would ask the other, ''Am 
I awake, or do I dream?" There was a piteous 
helplessness. Strong men bowed down and wept. 
Other and common griefs belonged to some one in 
chief; this belonged to all. It was each and every 
man's. Every virtuous household in the land felt 
as if its firstborn were gone. Men were bereaved, 



HENRY WARD BEECHER 313 

and walked for days as if a corpse lay unburied in 
their dwellings. There was nothing else to think of. 
They could speak of nothing but that; and yet, 
of that they could speak only falteringly. All busi- 
ness was laid aside. Pleasure forgot to smile. The 
great city for nearly a week ceased to roar. The 
huge Leviathan lay down and was still. Even 
avarice stood still, and greed was strangely moved 
to generous sympathy and universal sorrow. Rear 
to his name monuments, found charitable institu- 
tions, and write his name above their lintels; but 
no monument will ever equal the universal, spon- 
taneous, and sublime sorrow that in a moment 
swept down lines and parties, and covered up ani- 
mosities, and in an hour brought a divided people into 
unity of grief and indivisible fellowship of anguish. 

For myself, I cannot yet command that quietness of 
spirit needed for a just and temperate delineation of a 
man whom goodness has made great. Leaving that, 
if it please God, to some other occasion, I pass to 
some considerations aside from the martyr Presi- 
dent's character which may be fit for this hour's 
instruction. 

And first, let us not mourn that his departure was 
so sudden, nor fill our imagination with horror at its 
method. Men, long eluding and evading sorrow, 
when at last they are overtaken by it seem enchanted 
and seek to make their sorrow sorrowful to the very 
uttermost, and to bring out every drop of suffering 



314 



BEST AMERICAN ORATIONS 



which they possibly can. This is not Christian, 
though it may be natural. When good men pray 
for deliverance from sudden death, it is only that 
they may not be plunged without preparation, all 
disrobed, into the presence of their Judge. When 
one is ready to depart, suddenness of death is a bless- 
ing. It is a painful sight to see a tree overthrown 
by a tornado, wrenched from its foundations, and 
broken down Uke a weed ; but it is yet more painful 
to see a vast and venerable tree Ungering with vain 
strife against decay, which age and infirmity have 
marked for destruction. The process by which 
strength wastes, and the mind is obscured, and the 
tabernacle is taken down, is humiliating and painful; 
and it is good and grand when a man departs to his 
rest from out of the midst of duty, full-armed and 
strong, with pulse beating time. . . . 

Not they that go in a stupor, but they that go with 
all their powers about them, and wide-awake, to 
meet their Master, as to a wedding, are blessed. He 
died watching. He died mth his armor on. In the 
midst of hours of labor, in the very heart of patriotic 
consultations, just returned from camps and counsels, 
he was stricken down. No fever dried his blood. 
No slow waste consumed him. All at once, in full 
strength and manhood, with his girdle tight about 
him, he departed ; and walks with God. 

Nor was the manner of his death more shocking, 
if we divest it of the malignity of the motives which 



HENRY WARD BEECHER 315 

caused it. The mere instrument itself is not one 
that we should shrink from contemplating. Have 
not thousands of soldiers fallen on the field of battle 
by the bullets of the enemy ? Is being killed in battle 
counted to be a dreadful mode of dying ? It was as 
if he had died in battle. Do not all soldiers that 
must fall ask to depart in the hour of battle and of 
victory ? He went in the hour of victory. . . . 

For myself, when any event is susceptible of a 
higher and nobler garnishing, I know not what that 
disposition is that should seek to drag it down to 
the depths of gloom, and write it all over with the 
scrawls of horror or fear. I let the light of nobler 
thoughts fall upon his departure. . . . 

Then, again, this blow was but the expiring rebel- 
lion. As a miniature gives all the form and features 
of its subject, so, epitomized in this foul act, we find 
the whole nature and disposition of slavery. It 
begins in a wanton destruction of all human rights, 
and in a desecration of all the sanctities of heart and 
home; and it is the universal enemy of mankind, 
and of God, who made man. It can be maintained 
only at the sacrifice of every right moral feeling in 
its abettors and upholders. . . . Slavery is itself 
barbarity. That nation which cherishes it is bar- 
barous; and no outside tinsel or glitter can redeem 
it from the charge of barbarism. And it was fit 
that its expiring blow should be such as to take away 
from men the last forbearance, the last pity, and fire 



31 6 BEST AMERICAN ORATIONS 

the soul with an invincible determination that the 
breeding ground of such mischiefs and monsters shall 
be utterly and forever destroyed. 

We needed not that he should put on paper that he 
believed in slavery, who, with treason, with murder, 
with cruelty infernal, hovered around that majestic 
man to destroy his life. He was himself but the long 
sting with which slavery struck at liberty; and he 
carried the poison that belonged to slavery. As 
long as this nation lasts, it will never be forgotten 
that we have one martyred President — never! 
Never, while time lasts, while heaven lasts, while hell 
rocks and groans, will it be forgotten that slavery, 
by its minions, slew him, and in slaying him made 
manifest its whole nature and tendency. 

But another thing for us to remember is that this 
blow was aimed at the life of the government and 
of the nation. Lincoln was slain; America was 
meant. The man was cast down; the government 
was smitten at. It was the President who was 
killed. It was national hfe, breathing freedom 
and meaning beneficence, that was sought. He, the 
man of IlHnois, the private man, divested of robes 
and the insignia of authority, representing nothing 
but his personal self, might have been hated ; but that 
would not have called forth the murderer's blow. 
It was because he stood in the place of government, 
representing government and a government that rep- 
resented right and liberty, that he was singled out. 



HENRY WARD BEECHER 



Z^l 



This, then, is a crime against universal government. 
It is not a blow at the foundations of our govern- 
ment, more than at the foundations of the English 
government, of the French government, of every 
compacted and well-organized government. It was 
a crime against mankind. The whole world will 
repudiate and stigmatize it as a deed without a shade 
of redeeming Ught. . . . 

The blow, however, has signally failed. The cause 
is not stricken ; it is strengthened. This nation has 
dissolved, — but in tears only. It stands, four- 
square, more solid, to-day, than any pyramid in 
Egypt. This people are neither wasted, nor daunted, 
nor disordered. Men hate slavery and love liberty 
with stronger hate and love to-day than ever before. 
The Government is not weakened, it is made stronger. 
How naturally and easily were the ranks closed! 

Where could the head of government in any mon- 
archy be smittei) down by the hand of an assassin, 
and the funds not quiver nor fall one-half of one per 
cent? After a long period of national disturbance, 
after four years of drastic war, after tremendous 
drafts on the resources of the country, in the height 
and top of our burdens, the heart of this people is 
such that now, when the head of government is 
stricken down, the pubUc funds do not waver, but 
stand as the granite ribs in our mountains. . . . 

Even he who now sleeps has, by this event, been 
clothed with new influence. Dead, he speaks to men 



3i8 



BEST AMERICAN ORATIONS 



who now willingly hear what before they refused to 
listen to. Now, his simple and weighty words will 
be gathered like those of Washington, and your 
children and your children's children shall be taught 
to ponder the simpHcity and deep wisdom of utter- 
ances which, in their time, passed, in the party heat, 
as idle words. Men will receive a new impulse of 
patriotism for his sake, and will guard a new impulse 
of patriotism for his sake, and will guard with zeal 
the whole country which he loved so well : I swear 
you, on the altar of his memory, to be more faithful 
to the country for which he has perished. Men will, 
as they follow his hearse, swear a new hatred to that 
slavery against which he warred, and w^hich in van- 
quishing him has made him a martyr and a conqueror : 
I swear you, by the memory of this martyr, to hate 
slavery with an unappeasable hatred. Men will 
admire and imitate his unmoved firmness, his inflex- 
ible conscience for the right; and yet his gentleness, 
as tender as a woman's, his moderation of spirit, 
which not all the heat of party could inflame, nor all 
the jars and disturbances of this country shake out 
of its place: I swear you to an emulation of his 
justice, his moderation, and his mercy. 

You I can comfort; but how can I speak to that 
twiUght milHon to whom his name was as the name 
of an angel of God? There will be waiHng in places 
which no ministers shall be able to reach. When, 
in hovel and in cot, in wood and in wilderness, in the 



HENRY WARD BEECHER 319 

field throughout the South, the dusky children, who 
looked upon him as that Moses whom God sent before 
them to lead them out of the land of bondage, learn 
that he has fallen, who shall comfort them? Oh, 
thou Shepherd of Israel, that didst comfort thy 
people of old, to thy care we commit the helpless, 
the long wronged, and grieved! 

And now the martyr is moving in triumphal march, ^ 
.mightier than when alive. The nation rises up at 
every stage of his coming. Cities and states are his 
pall-bearers, and the cannon beats the hours with 
solemn progression. Dead — dead — dead — he yet 
speaketh! Is Washington dead? Is Hampden 
dead ? Is DaAdd dead ? Is any man dead that ever 
was fit to five? Disenthralled of flesh, and risen 
to the unobstructed sphere where passion never 
comes, he begins his illimitable work. His life now 
is grafted upon the Infinite, and will be fruitful as 
no earthly life can be. Pass on, thou that hast over- 
come! Your sorrows, O people, are his peace! 
Your bells, and bands, and muffled drums sound 
triumph in his ear. Wail and weep here ; God makes 
it echo joy and triumph there . Pass on, thou victor! 

Four years ago, O Illinois, we took from your 
midst an untried man, and from among the people; 
we return him to you a mighty conqueror. Not 

^ The funeral journey, conveying Lincoln's body from 
Washington to Illinois, was fourteen days in progress. He 
was buried on May 4, 1865. 



320 BEST AMERICAN ORATIONS 

thine any more, but the nation's; not ours, but the 
world's. Give him place, ye prairies! In the midst 
of this great Continent his dust shall rest, a sacred 
treasure to myriads who shall make pilgrimage to 
that shrine to kindle anew their zeal and patriotism. 
Ye winds, that move over the mighty places of 
the West, chant his requiem! Ye people, behold a 
martyr, whose blood, as so many inarticulate words, 
pleads for fideHty, for law, for liberty! 



HENRY WOODFIN GRADY 

1851-1889 



This was a fine type of the man of the New South. Very 
many able young men of the Southern States, discouraged by 
the desolations of the War, the difficulties besetting life during 
the Reconstruction period, and the slowness of general re- 
covery, transferred their activities to Northern cities and there 
prospered. Young Grady, however, after graduation at the 
State University of Georgia, his native State, and post-graduate 
studies at the University of Virginia, went into journalism in 
Rome, Georgia, and by his intelligent industry there, and his 
uncommonly reasonable and candid articles in Northern papers 
upon Southern affairs, gained a strong position. By the help 
of friends he bought into the Atlanta Constitution, one of the 
best of the Southern journals, became its editor, and so con- 
tinued as long as he lived. 

In this influential position Grady was often called upon 
for public addresses, and developed a remarkable oratorical 
power. His two most significant orations were made at the 
North, his subjects being the affairs of the South. At the New 
England Society's annual banquet in New York, December 12, 
1886, he made a great impression. "There was a South of 
slavery and secession," he began; " that South is dead. There 
is a South of union and freedom ; that South, thank God, is 
living, breathing, growing every hour," and he proceeded to 
depict it in glowing words that aroused the enthusiastic sym- 
pathy of his hearers. The other address was made three years 
later, before the banquet of the Boston Merchants' Associa- 
tion, December 12, 1889, and such portions of it as are here 
given show clearly the man of heart, of intellect, and of the 
orator's power. He died, ten days later, regretted by the whole 
country. 



322 



THE NEW SOUTH 

The stoutest apostle of the church, they say, is the 
missionary, and the missionary, wherever he unfurls 
his flag, will never find himself in deeper need of 
unction and address than I, bidden to-night to plant 
the standard of a Southern Democrat in Boston's 
banquet hall, and to discuss the problem of the races 
in the home of Phillips and of Sumner. But, Mr. 
President, if a purpose to speak in perfect frankness 
and sincerity; if earnest understanding of the vast 
interests involved; if a consecrating sense of what 
disaster must follow further misunderstanding and 
estrangement — if all these may be counted on to 
steady undisciplined speech and to strengthen an 
untried arm, then, Sir, I shall find the courage to 
proceed. 

Happy am I that this mission has brought my feet, 
at last, to press New England's historic soil, and my 
eyes to the knowledge of her beauty and her thrift. 
Here within touch of Plymouth Rock and Bunker 
Hill — where Webster thundered and Longfellow 
sung, Emerson thought, and Channing preached — 
here in the cradle of American letters and almost of 
American liberty, I hasten to make the obeisance that 
323 



324 



BEST AMERICAN ORATIONS 



every American owes New England when first he 
stands uncovered in her mighty presence. Strange 
apparition! This stern and unique figure, carved 
from the ocean and the wilderness, its majesty kin- 
dling and growing amid the storms of winter, and of 
wars, until, at last, the gloom was broken, its beauty 
disclosed in the tranquil sunshine, and the heroic 
workers rested at its base, w^hile startled kings and 
emperors gazed and marveled that from the rude 
touch of this handful, cast on a bleak and unknown 
shore, should have come the embodied genius of 
human liberty! God bless the memory of those im- 
mortal workers — and prosper the fortunes of their 
living sons — and perpetuate the inspiration of their 
handiwork! . . . 

Far to the South, Mr. President, separated by a 
line — once defined in irrepressible difference, once 
traced in fratricidal blood, and now, thank God, but 
a vanishing shadow — lies the fairest and richest 
domain of this earth. It is the home of a brave and 
hospitable people. There is centered all that can 
please or prosper humankind. A perfect climate 
above a fertile soil yields to the husbandman every 
product of the temperate zone. There, by night, 
the cotton whitens beneath the stars, and by day 
the wheat locks the sunshine in its bearded sheaf. 
In the same field the clover steals the fragrance of the 
wind, and the tobacco catches the quick aroma of 
the rains. There are mountains stored with exhaust- 



HENRY WOODFIN GRADY 325 

less treasures; forests vast and primeval, and rivers 
that, tumbling or loitering, run wanton to the sea. 
Of the three essential items of all industries — cotton, 
iron, and wood — that region has easy control. In 
cotton, a fixed monopoly; in iron, proven supremacy; 
in timber, the reserve supply of the republic. From 
this assured and permanent advantage, against which 
artificial conditions cannot long prevail, has grown 
an amazing system of industries. Not maintained 
by human contrivance of tariff or capital, afar off 
from the fullest and cheapest source of supply, but 
resting in Divine assurance, within touch of field and 
mine and forest — not set amid bleak hills and costly 
farms from which competition has driven the farmer 
in despair, but amid cheap and sunny lands, rich 
with agriculture, to which neither season nor soil has 
set a limit — this system of industries is mounting to 
a splendor that shall dazzle and illumine the world. 
That, Sir, is the picture and the promise of my home 
— a land better and fairer than I have told you, 
and yet but a fit setting, in its material excellence, 
for the loyal and gentle quality of its citizenship. 
Against that. Sir, we have New England recruiting 
the republic from its sturdy loins, shaking from its 
overcrowded hives new swarms of workers, and touch- 
ing this land all over with its energy and its courage. 
And yet — while in the Eldorado, of which I have 
told you, but fifteen per cent of lands are cultivated, 
its mines scarcely touched, and its population so 



326 BEST AMERICAN ORATIONS 

scant that, were it set equidistant, the sound of the 
human voice could not be heard from Virginia to 
Texas — while on the threshold of nearly every house 
in New England stands a son, seeking with troubled 
eyes some new^ land in which to carry his modest 
patrimony, and the homely training that is better 
than gold — the strange fact remains that in 1880 
the South had fewer Northern-born citizens than she 
had in 1870 — fewer in 1870 than in i860. Why is 
this? . . . 

There can be but one answer. It is the very 
problem we are now to consider. The key that 
opens that problem wdll unlock to the world the 
fairest half of this repubUc, and free the halted feet 
of thousands whose eyes are already kindling with 
its beauty. . . . Nothing else stands between us 
and such love as bound Georgia and Massachusetts 
at Valley Forge and Yorktown, chastened by the 
sacrifice of Manassas and Gettysburg, and illumined 
with the coming of better work and a nobler destiny 
than was ever wrought by the sword or sought at 
the cannon's mouth. ... I thank God as heartily 
as you do that human slavery is gone forever from 
American soil. But the freedman remains, and with 
him a problem without precedent or parallel. Note 
its appalling conditions. Two utterly dissimilar 
races on the same soil — with equal political and civil 
rights — almost equal in numbers, but terribly 
unequal in intelligence and responsibility — each 



HENRY WOODFIN GRADY 327 

pledged against fusion — one for a century in servi- 
tude to the other, and freed at last by a desolating 
war — the experiment sought by neither, but ap- 
proached by both with doubt — these are the con- 
ditions. Under these, adverse at every point, we 
are required to carry these two races in peace and 
honor to the end. . . . 

The President of the United States, in his late 
message to Congress, discussing the plea that the 
South should be left to solve this problem, asks: 
"Are they at work upon it ? What solution do they 
offer ? When will the black man cast a free ballot ? 
When will he have the civil right that is his ?" . . . 
Backed by a record on every page of which is prog- 
ress, I venture to make earnest and respectful answer 
to the questions that are asked. I bespeak your 
patience, while with righteous plainness of speech, 
seeking your judgment rather than your applause, 
I proceed step by step. 

We give to the world this year a crop of 7,500,000 
bales of cotton, worth $450,000,000, and its cash 
equivalent in grain, grasses, and fruit. This enor- 
mous crop could not have come from the hands of 
sullen and discontented labor. It comes from the 
peaceful fields in which laughter and gossip rise above 
the hum of industry, and contentment runs with the 
singing plow. It is claimed that this ignorant 
labor is defrauded of its just hire. I present the 
tax-books of Georgia, which show that the negro, 



7,2S BEST AMERICAN ORATIONS 

twenty-five years ago a slave, has in Georgia alone 
$10,000,000 of assessed property, worth twice that 
much. Does not that record honor him and vindicate 
his neighbors ? What other people, penniless and 
illiterate, has done so wtII ? . . . 

And the schoolhouse itself bears testimony. In 
Georgia we added last year $250,000 to the school 
fund, making a total of more than $1,000,000, and 
yet forty-nine per cent of the beneficiaries are black 
children. . . . The South, since 1865, has spent 
$122,000,000 in education, and this year is pledged 
$37,000,000 more for State and city schools — 
although the blacks, paying one-thirtieth 'of the 
taxes, get nearly one-half of the fund. Go into our 
fields and see whites and blacks working side by side. 
On our buildings in the same squad. In our shops 
at the same forge. Often the blacks crowd the 
whites from work, or lower wages by their greater 
need or simpler habits, and yet are permitted to do 
so because we want to bar them from no avenue in 
which their feet are fitted to tread. . . . 

In the South there are negro lawyers, teachers, 
editors, dentists, doctors, preachers, working in peace 
and multiplying with the increasing ability of their 
race to support them. In villages and towns they 
have their military companies equipped from the 
armories of the State, their churches and societies 
built and supported largely by their neighbors. 

What is the testimony of the courts? In penal 



HENRY WOODFIN GRADY 329 

legislation we have steadily reduced felonies to mis- 
demeanors, and have led the world in mitigating 
punishment for crime, that we might save, as far 
as possible, this dependent race from its own weak- 
ness. In our penitentiary record sixty per cent 
of the prosecutors are negroes, and in every court the 
negro criminal challenges the colored juror, that 
white men may judge his case. In the North one 
negro in every one hundred and eighty-five is in jail; 
in the South only one in four hundred and forty-six. 
In the North the percentage of negro prisoners is 
six times as great as that of native whites; in the 
South only four times as great. If prejudice wrong 
him in Southern courts, the record shows it to be 
deeper in Northern courts. . . . Now, Mr. Presi- 
dent, can it be seriously maintained that we are 
terrorizing the people from whose willing hands come 
every year $1,000,000,000 of farm crops, or have 
robbed a people, who in twenty-five years from un- 
rewarded slavery, have amassed in one State 
$20,000,000 of property ? Or that w^e intend to 
oppress the people w^e are arming every day? 
We "deceive" them, when we are educating 
them to the utmost limit of our ability ? . . . 

But it is claimed that under this fair-seeming there 
is disorder and violence. This I admit. And there 
will be until there is one ideal community on earth 
after which we may pattern. But how widely is it 
misjudged. It is hard to measure with exactness 



33^ 



BEST AMERICAN ORATIONS 



whatever touches the negro. His helplessness, his 
isolation, his century of servitude, these dispose 
us to emphasize and magnify his wrongs. This 
disposition has been inflamed by prejudice and par- 
tisanry until it has led to injustice and delusion. 
Lawless men may ravage a county in Iowa, and it is 
accepted as an incident. In the South a drunken 
row is declared to be the fixed habit of the com- 
munity. . . . 

But admitting the right of the whites to unite 
against this tremendous menace, we are challenged 
with the smallness of our vote. This has long been 
flippantly charged to be evidence, and has now been 
solemnly and ofhcially declared to be proof of politi- 
cal turpitude and baseness on our part. Let us see: 
Virginia — a State now under fierce assault for this 
alleged crime — cast in 1888, seventy-five per cent 
of her vote. Massachusetts, the State in which I 
speak, sixty per cent of her vote. Was it suppres- 
sion in Virginia and natural causes in Massachusetts ? 

The negro vote can never control in the South, 
and it would be well if partisans at the North would 
understand this. . . . You may pass force bills, 
but they will not avail. . . . 

Meantime, we treat the negro fairly, measuring 
to him justice in the fullness the strong should give 
to the weak, and leading him in the steadfast ways of 
citizenship, that he may no longer be the prey of the 
unscrupulous and the sport of the thoughtless. We 



HENRY WOODFIN GRADY 



33^ 



open to him every pursuit in which he can prosper, 
and seek to broaden his training and capacity. We 
seek to hold his confidence and friendship, and to pin 
him to the soil with ownership, that he may catch 
in the fire of his own hearthstone that sense of 
responsibility the shiftless can never know. . . . 

The love we feel for that race you cannot measure 
nor comprehend. As I attest it here, the spirit of 
my old "black mammy," from her home up there, 
looks down on me to bless, and through the tumult 
of this night, steals the sweet music of her croonings. 
Thirty years ago she held me in her black arms 
or led me smiling into sleep. This scene vanishes as 
I speak, and I catch a vision of an old Southern home 
with its lofty pillars and its white pigeons fluttering 
down through the golden air. I see women with 
strained and anxious faces, and children alert, yet 
helpless. I see night come down with its dangers 
and apprehensions, and in a big and homely room 
I feel on my tired head the touch of loving hands 
— now worn and wrinkled, but fairer to me yet than 
the hands of mortal woman, and stronger yet to 
lead me than the hands of mortal man — as they 
lay a mother's blessing there, while at her knees — 
the truest altar I yet have found — I thank God 
that she is safe in her sanctuary, because her slaves, 
sentinel in the silent cabin, or on guard at her chamber 
door, put a black man's loyalty between her and 
danger. 



332 



BEST AMERICAN ORATIONS 



I catch another vision. The crisis of battle — a 
soldier struck, staggering, fallen. I see a slave, 
struggling through the smoke, winding his black arms 
about the fallen form, reckless of lurking death — 
bending his trusty face to catch the words that 
tremble on the stricken lips, so wrestUng meantime 
with agony that he would lay down his Ufe in his 
master's stead. I see him by the weary bedside, 
ministering with uncomplaining patience, praying 
with all his humble heart that God will Hft his master 
up, until death comes in mercy and in honor to still 
the soldier's agony and seal the soldier's life. I see 
him by the open grave, mute, motionless, uncovered, 
suffering for the death of him who in life fought 
against his freedom. I see him when the mound is 
heaped and the great drama of his life is closed, turn 
away and, with downcast eyes and uncertain step, 
start out into new and strange fields, faltering, strug- 
gling, but moving on, until his shambhng figure is 
lost in the light of a better and a brighter day. And 
from the grave comes a voice saying: "Follow him! 
Put your arms about him in his need, even as he put 
his about me. Be his friend as he was mine." And 
out into this new world — strange to me as to him, 
dazzHng, bewildering both — I follow! And may 
God forget my people — when they forget these ! 

Whatever the future may hold for them . . . 
we shall give them uttermost justice and abiding 
friendship. And whatever we do, into whatever 



HENRY WOODFIN GRADY 



333 



seeming estrangement we may be driven, nothing 
shall disturb the love we bear this repubhc, or miti- 
gate our consecration to its service. I stand here, 
Mr. President, to profess no new loyalty. When 
General Lee, whose heart was the temple of our hopes 
and whose arm was clothed with our strength, re- 
newed his allegiance to this government at Appo- 
mattox, he spoke from a heart too great to be false, 
and he spoke for every honest man from Maryland to 
Texas. From that day to this, Hamilcar has nowhere 
in the South sworn young Hannibal to hatred and 
vengeance — but everywhere to loyalty and love. 
Witness the veteran standing at the base of a Con- 
federate monument, above the graves of his com- 
rades, his empty sleeve tossing in the April wind, 
adjuring the young men about him to serve as hon- 
est and loyal citizens the government against which 
their fathers fought. This message, delivered from 
that sacred presence, has gone home to the hearts of 
my fellows! And, Sir, I declare here, if physical 
courage be always equal to human aspiration, that 
they would die, Sir, if need be, to restore this repubhc 
their fathers fought to dissolve! 

Such, Mr. President, is tliis problem as we see it, 
such the temper in which we approach it, such the 
progress made. What do we ask of you ? First, 
patience; out of this alone can come perfect work. 
Second, confidence; in this alone can you judge 
fairly. Third, sympathy; in this you can help us 



334 BEST AMERICAN ORATIONS 

best. Fourth, loyalty to the republic — for there 
is sectionalism in loyalty as in estrangement. This 
hour little needs the loyalty that is loyal to one sec- 
tion, and yet holds the other in enduring suspicion 
and estrangement. Give us the broad and perfect 
loyalty that loves and trusts Georgia alike with 
Massachusetts — that "knows no South, no North, 
no East, no West"; but endears with equal and pa- 
triotic love every foot of our soil, every State of our 
Union. . . . 

Our history. Sir, has been a constant and expand- 
ing miracle from Plymouth Rock and Jamestown 
all the way — aye, even from the hour, w^hen, from 
the voiceless and trackless ocean, a new world rose 
to the sight of the inspired sailor. As we approach 
the fourth centennial of that stupendous day — 
when the Old World will come to marvel and to learn, 
amid our gathered pleasures — let us resolve to 
crown the miracles of our past with the spectacle of a 
repubUc compact, united, indissoluble in the bonds 
of love — loving from the Lakes to the Gulf — the 
wounds of w^ar healed in every heart as on every hill 
— serene and resplendent at the summit of human 
achievement and earthly glory — blazing out the path 
and making clear the w^ay up w^hich all the nations 
of the earth must come in God's appointed time! 



WILLIAM McKINLEY 

I 843-1 90 I 



A GRADUATE of Allegheny College in Ohio, his native State, 
after a period of teaching in the public schools, in the beginning 
of the Civil War, at the age of seventeen, William McKinley 
enlisted as a private in the 23d Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and 
by gallant conduct was brevetted major before the end of the 
vi^ar. His career as lawyer, politician, and statesman, as Gov- 
ernor of Ohio, champion of high protection in the House of 
Representatives, and President of the United States, together 
with his pitiful but noble ending of life by assassination at 
the Buffalo (New York) World's Fair in 1901, has been made 
familiar to all since his untimely taking off. 

President McKinley's last public address — terse, direct, 
and convincing — made at Buffalo the day before his assassi- 
nation, shows the expanding view of the statesman, who was 
able to rise above the exclusion-theory of protection to Ameri- 
can industries, to see the enlarging of American relations to 
the commercial world, and to declare that " the period of ex- 
clusiveness is past." With John Hay, his able Secretary of 
State, he had arranged a treaty giving the United States free 
hand in the Isthmus, and, as Mr. Hay said in his eloquent 
memorial address before Congress, " he saw in the immense 
evolution of American trade the fulfillment of all his dreams, 
the reward of all his labors." Thus, his State Department 
had negotiated various reciprocity treaties with foreign nations, 
which would doubtless have benefited both American manu- 
factures and American commerce ; but the popular feeling that 
responded to this loosening of the bonds had not penetrated 
Congress, and they failed of confirmation in the Senate. 

Yet his utterances still ring true, and are increasingly in- 
fluential. Our Chinese tarifi' wall must be lowered, and 
pierced with gates for the inward and outward passage of 
American and foreign wealth. McKinley's prophetic senti- 
ments may well conclude this gathering of counsels from 
American statesmen who have passed away, but who have 
left us helpful words of soberness and truth. 



WORLD-RELATIONS OF AMERICA 

I AM glad again to be in the city of Buffalo and 
exchange greetings with her people, to whose generous 
hospitality I am not a stranger, and with whose good 
mil I have been repeatedly and signally honored. 
To-day I have additional satisfaction in meeting and 
giving welcome to the foreign representatives as- 
sembled here, whose presence and participation in this 
Exposition have contributed in so marked a degree 
to its interest and success. To the commissioners of 
the Dominion of Canada and the British Colonies, 
the French Colonies, the Republics of Mexico and 
of Central and South America, and the commis- 
sioners of Cuba and Porto Rico, who share with us 
in this undertaking, we give the hand of fellowship 
and felicitate with them upon the triumphs of art, 
science, education, and manufacture which the old 
has bequeathed to the new century. 

Expositions are the timekeepers of progress. 
They record the world's advancement. They stimu- 
late the energy, enterprise, and intellect of the people, 
and quicken human genius. They go into the home. 
They broaden and brighten the daily Ufe of the 
people. They open mighty storehouses of informa- 
337 



338 BEST AMERICAN ORATIONS 

tion to the student. Every exposition, great or 
small, has helped to some onward step. 

Comparison of ideas is always educational and, as 
such, instructs the brain and hand of man. Friendly 
rivalry follows, which is the spur to industrial im- 
provement, the inspiration to useful invention and to 
high endeavor in all departments of human activity. 
It exacts a study of the w-ants, comforts, and even 
the whims of the people, and recognizes the efficacy 
of high quahty and low prices to win their favor. 
The quest for trade is an incentive to men of business 
to devise, invent, improve, and economize in the cost 
of production. Business Ufe, whether among our- 
selves or with other peoples, is ever a sharp struggle 
for success. It will be none the less in the future. 
Without competition we w^ould be clinging to the 
clumsy and antiquated process of farming and manu- 
facture and the methods of business of long ago, 
and the twentieth would be no further advanced than 
the eighteenth century. 

But though commercial competitors w^e are, com- 
mercial enemies we must not be. The Pan-American 
Exposition has done its work thoroughly, presenting 
in its exhibits evidences of the highest skill and illus- 
trating the progress of the human family in the 
Western Hemisphere. This portion of the earth has 
no cause for humiliation for the part it has performed 
in the march of civilization. It has not accom- 
plished everything; far from it. It has simply done 



WILLIAM Mckinley 339 

its best, and without vanity or boastfulness, and 
recognizing the manifold achievements of others, 
it invites the friendly rivalry of all the powers in the 
peaceful pursuits of trade and commerce, and will 
cooperate with all in advancing the highest and best 
interests of humanity. The wisdom and energy of 
all the nations are none too great for the world work. 
The success of art, science, industry, and invention 
is an international asset and a common glory. 

After all, how near one to the other is every part 
of the world! Modern inventions have brought 
into close relation widely separated peoples and 
made them better acquainted. Geographic and 
political divisions will continue to exist, but dis- 
tances have been effaced. Swift ships and fast 
trains are becoming cosmopolitan. They invade 
fields which a few years ago were impenetrable. 
The world's products are exchanged as never before, 
and with increasing transportation facihties come 
increasing knowledge and larger trade. Prices are 
fixed with mathematical precision by supply and 
demand. The world's selhng prices are regulated 
by market and crop reports. We travel greater dis- 
tances in a shorter space of time and with more ease 
than was ever dreamed of by the fathers. Isolation 
is no longer possible or desirable. The same impor- 
tant news is read, though in different languages, 
the same day in all Christendom. 

The telegraph keeps us advised of what is occur- 



340 BEST AMERICAN ORATIONS 

ring everywhere, and the Press foreshadows, with more 
or less accuracy, the plans and purposes of the na- 
tions. Market prices of products and of securities 
are hourly known in every commercial mart, and the 
investments of the people extend beyond their own 
national boundaries into the remotest parts of the 
earth. Vast transactions are conducted and inter- 
national exchanges are made by the tick of the cable. 
Every event of interest is immediately bulletined. 
The quick gathering and transmission of news, like 
rapid transit, are of recent origin, and are only made 
possible by the genius of the inventor and the cour- 
age of the investor. It took a special messenger of 
the Government, wdth every facility known at the 
time for rapid travel, nineteen days to go from the 
City of Washington to New Orleans with a message 
to General Jackson that the w^ar wdth England had 
ceased and a treaty of peace had been signed. How 
different now! We reached General Miles, in Porto 
Rico, and he was able through the miUtary telegraph 
to stop his army on the firing line with the message 
that the United States and Spain had signed a 
protocol suspending • hostilities. We knew almost 
instanter of the first shots fired at Santiago, and the 
subsequent surrender of the Spanish forces was 
known at Washington within less than an hour of 
its consummation. The first ship of Cervera's fleet 
had hardly emerged from that historic harbor when 
the fact was flashed to our Capitol, and the swift 



WILLIAM Mckinley 341 

destruction that followed was announced immediately 
through the wonderful medium of telegraphy. 

So accustomed are we to safe and easy communica- 
tion with distant lands that its temporary interrup- 
tion, even in ordinary times, results in loss and incon- 
venience. We shall never forget the days of anxious 
waiting and suspense when no information was per- 
mitted to be sent from Pekin, and the diplomatic 
representatives of the nations in China, cut off from 
all communication, inside and outside of the walled 
capital, were surrounded by an angry and misguided 
mob that threatened their lives; nor the joy that 
thrilled the w^orld when a single message from the 
government of the United States brought through 
our minister the first news of the safety of the be- 
sieged diplomats. 

At the beginning of the Nineteenth Century there 
was not a mile of steam railroad on the globe; now 
there are enough miles to make its circuit many times. 
Then there was not a hne of electric telegraph; 
now we have a vast mileage traversing all lands and 
seas. God and man have linked the nations together. 
No nation can longer be indifferent to any other. 
And as we are brought more and more in touch with 
each other, the less occasion is there for misunder- 
standings, and the stronger the disposition, when 
we have differences, to adjust them in the court of 
arbitration, which is the noblest forum for the settle- 
ment of international disputes. 



34^ 



BEST AMERICAN ORATIONS 



My fellow-citizens, trade statistics indicate that 
this country is in a state of unexampled prosperity. 
The figures are almost appaUing. They show that 
we are utiUzing our fields and forests and mines, and 
that we are furnishing profitable employment to the 
miUions of workingmen throughout the United States, 
bringing comfort and happiness to their homes, 
and making it possible to lay by savings for old age 
and disabihty. That all the people are participating 
in this great prosperity is seen in every American 
community and shown by the enormous and unprece- 
dented deposits in our savings banks. Our duty in 
the care and security of these deposits and their safe 
investment demands the highest integrity and the 
l^est business capacity of those in charge of these 
depositories of the people's earnings. 

We have a vast and intricate business, built up 
through years of toil and struggle in which every 
part of the country has its stake, which will not per- 
mit of either neglect or of undue selfishness. No 
narrow, sordid policy will subserve it. The greatest 
skill and wisdom on the part of manufacturers and 
producers will be required to hold and increase it. 
Our industrial enterprises, which have grown to 
such great proportions, affect the homes and occu- 
pations of the people and the welfare of the country. 
Our capacity to produce has developed so enor- 
mously and our products have so multipHed that the 
problem of more markets requires our urgent and 



WILLIAM Mckinley 343 

immediate attention. Only a broad and enlightened 
policy will keep what we have. No other policy 
will get more. In these times of marvelous business 
energy and gain we ought to be looking to the future, 
strengthening the weak places in our industrial and 
commercial systems, that we may be ready for any 
storm or strain. 

By sensible trade arrangements which will not 
interrupt our home production we shall extend the 
outlets for our increasing surplus. A system which 
provides a mutual exchange of commodities is mani- 
festly essential to the continued and healthful growth 
of our export trade. We must not repose in the 
fancied security that we can forever sell everything 
and buy little or nothing. If such a thing were 
possible it would not be best for us or for those with 
whom we deal. We should take from our customers 
such of their products as we can use without harm 
to our industries and labor. Reciprocity is the 
natural outgrowth of our wonderful industrial 
development under the domestic policy now firmly 
established. 

What we produce beyond our domestic consump- 
tion must have a vent abroad. The excess must be 
relieved through a foreign outlet, and we should sell 
everywhere we can and buy wherever the buying will 
enlarge our sales and productions, and thereby make 
a greater demand for home labor. 

The period of exclusiveness is past. The expan- 



344 BEST AMERICAN ORATIONS 

sion of our trade and commerce is the pressing prob- 
lem. Commercial wars are unprofitable. A policy 
of good will and friendly trade relations will prevent 
reprisals. Reciprocity treaties are in harmony with 
the spirit of the times; measures of retahation are not. 
If, perchance, some of our tariffs are no longer needed 
for revenue or to encourage and protect our indus- 
tries at home, why should they not be employed to 
extend and promote our markets abroad ? 

Then, too, we have inadequate steamship service. 
New lines of steamships have already been put in 
commission between the Pacific coast ports of the 
United States and those on the western coasts of 
Mexico and Central and South America. These 
should be followed up with direct steamship lines 
between the western coast of the United States and 
South American ports. One of the needs of the 
times is direct commercial lines from our vast fields 
of production to the fields of consumption that we 
have but barely touched. Next in advantage to 
having the thing to sell is to have the conveyance to 
carry it to the buyer. We must encourage our mer- 
chant marine. We must have more ships. They 
must be under the American flag; built and manned 
and owned by Americans. These will not only be 
profitable in a commercial sense; they will be mes- 
sengers of peace and amity wherever they go. 

We must build the Isthmian canal, which will 
unite the two oceans and give a straight line of water 



WILLIAM Mckinley 



345 



communication with the western coasts of Central 
and South America and Mexico. The construction 
of a Pacific cable cannot be longer postponed. In 
the furtherance of these objects of national interest 
and concern you are performing an important part. 
This Exposition would have touched the heart of that 
American statesman whose mind was ever alert and 
thought ever constant for a larger commerce and a 
truer fraternity of the republics of the New World. 
His broad American spirit is felt and manifested here. 
He needs no identification to an assemblage of Amer- 
icans anywhere, for the name of Blaine is inseparably 
associated with the Pan-American movement which 
finds here practical and substantial expression, and 
which we all hope will be firmly advanced by the 
Pan-American Congress that assembles this autumn 
in the capital of Mexico. The good work will go on. 
It cannot be stopped. 

These buildings will disappear; this creation of art 
and beauty and industry will perish from sight, 
but their influence will remain to '' make it live beyond 
its too short living with praises and thanksgiving." 
Who can tell the new thoughts that have been 
awakened, the ambitions fired, and the high achieve- 
ments that will be wrought through this Exposition? 

Gentlemen, let us ever remember that our interest 
is in concord, not conflict; and that our real eminence 
rests in the victories of peace, not those of war. We 
hope that all who are represented here may be moved 



346 BEST AMERICAN ORATIONS 

to higher and nobler efforts for their own and the 
world's good, and that out of this city may come 
not only greater commerce and trade for us all, but, 
more essential than these, relations of mutual respect, 
confidence, and friendship, which will deepen and 
endure. Our earnest prayer is that God will gra- 
ciously vouchsafe prosperity, happiness, and peace 
to all our neighbors, and Uke blessings to all the 
peoples and powers of earth. 



JUL 2S 



i9I0 



One copy del. to Cat. Div. 



